Danny Phantom in Alien Invaders
by TrojanHalks2012
Summary: While out on an Archeological dig, Kim finds a race of ancient aliens. The US government tries to cover up the discovery but after the ancient aliens break out of Area 51 they will head for Amity Park where they will free the Alien King from the ghostzone
1. Introduction

**As a continuation to my previous stories, I now present to you the first half of my next story. Unlike my first few stories, this will be a double length story, with four parts instead of two. You should be warned, this story will present one of SciFi's most terrifying alien creatures, so there will be blood and gore and even death of minor characters. I will try to keep it all to a minimum, hence why the story is only rated T. Our story begins deep within the Amazon Rainforest...**

* * *

The sun shone bright and hot on a cloudless day as thousands of crickets are heard buzzing in the trees as the view panned from the sun and down into a dense jungle setting complete with tall trees, ferns and vines, and even a colorful toucan sitting on a branch that squawked before it took off and flew through the trees.

Down on the ground, some ferns were shuffled a bit before a man wearing dried leaves tied around his waist to prevent himself from being revealed appeared from behind the ferns. He wore colorful mud on his face, probably for ceremonial purposes. He carried a pouch on his back, a sheathed knife at his waist and a long spear in hand.

He spoke in a foreign dialect that consisted mostly of a series of clicks and shouts. He waved into the dense forestation before he took off. More than a dozen more men dressed the same emerged from the dense jungle with spears of their own. They all looked quite scared and followed the first man who must have been a scout for the others.

They whispered amongst themselves in their dialect as they entered a circular clearing. They formed a small group and stood back to back to make sure no one or anything could sneak up on them.

They were all very nervous; only the scout was able to keep his cool. He spoke something to his fellow tribesmen, an order of some sort. They raised their spears and began sweating profusely. They began to whimper amongst themselves and failed to notice a black spine-like tail slithering out from the bushes along the ground.

"YAAAAH!" one of the nervous tribesmen screamed as he was pulled to the ground, the black spine-like tail wrapped around one of his legs. His fellow tribesmen shouted in their dialect as they chased after the man as he was dragged across the clearing and into the ferns. "YAAAAAH!" the man is heard screaming from the other side of the bushes.

The tribesmen stopped giving chase and began to back away nervously as the sound of something eating the man came from the bushes. They all jumped back when something was thrown at them from the bushes. It landed on the ground and they all cautiously approached whatever was thrown at them. It was the man's left arm, torn from his shoulder, ripped right out of the socket.

As they examined the severed arm, the man's severed head came out of the bushes and slowly rolled downhill towards the tribesmen. One of them shouted in their dialect and pointed towards the head, shocking them all and making them jump backwards in surprise. The head stopped next to the severed arm, his face frozen with fear from the moment it was torn from the rest of his body.

The tribesmen had had enough, they screamed for their lives as they ran through the bushes in the opposite direction. They ran as fast as they could; running around trees, vines, bushes and ferns; but it wasn't enough for most of them. The stragglers were pulled into the bushes by unseen forces, but their screams revealed that something was attacking them and killing them.

By the time they entered a larger clearing they had dwindled down to only five men. The clearing they were in wasn't empty though, sitting in the middle was a very large stone structure; it looked like a step-pyramid with a statue sitting at the very top. The statue resembled a giant egg with carvings in the side, but it was too far away to see any detail.

The five tribesmen shouted in their unknown dialect as they ran for the only entrance in the side of the stone structure. It appeared to be the only entrance in the side of the stone structure that went below ground. The men ran through the open doorway and grabbed pre-lit torches as they made their way through the dark tunnels.

Many secondary tunnels branched off from the main tunnel as the tribesmen ran down the long corridor. "HMPF!" one man grunted as he tripped and fell directly across from a secondary tunnel. A scaly black hand emerged from the darkness and wrapped its long fingers around the man's leg. "Huh?" he said in shock. "YAAAAAH!" he screamed as he was dragged into the darkness, his finger tips scratching along the ground. The sound of him being torn apart and eaten is heard soon after.

Two more men fell in the same manner until there were only two left, the brave calm minded scout and a nervous wreck of a man. They ran into a dead end; they slowly began to backtrack, eventually coming to another dark tunnel. They turned around and prepared to fight when they heard something approaching them from behind.

Another dark hand with long scaly fingers emerged from the darkness. The brave scout shouted a battle cry before he pulled a small knife out of its sheath at his waist and swiped it in front of his face.

The unseen creature is heard screeching in agony as it pulled its arm back, but the blade had cut right though its hand. The scaly hand dropped to the ground but not before spurting out blood, but this wasn't ordinary blood, it was yellow. When it splattered onto the stone floor, it began to fizzle and burned into the stone like acid.

The acidic blood was all over the knife and it quickly dissolved in the man's hand. He dropped the knife but not before losing a few fingers that had been melted off from the blood. "YAAAAH!" the man screamed as he grabbed his hand in agony.

The other man was too nervous and scared to help. He backed away and coward before another black spine-like tail emerged from the darkness at extreme speed. It was sharp on the end and so impaled the scout man's chest and puncturing and penetrated out through his back.

The scared man turned and ran away screaming. He was quickly cut off when a giant boulder fell from a hole in the tunnel's ceiling, blocking the only exit; or in this case, escape; from the underground tunnels. He skidded to a stop and dropped his torch. He whimpered in fear before he heard a growling coming from behind him. He gulped nervously, turned around and screamed as the view quickly zoomed in on his face before it panned back to the man that was stabbed through the chest by the spine-like tail.

He gasped for breath and spat out blood as he grabbed the tail where it entered into his chest and tried to pull it out. He grunted before running out of energy. His arms dropped to his side and he began breathing heavily as he focused his eyes on the darkness.

The creature that the tail belonged to finally moved into the light. The man's eyes bulged with horror when he saw the creature. The full length of the creature's tail was between fifteen and twenty feet long. The creature had a humanoid body covered in shiny black armor, spikes emerging from its back and an elongated head. It didn't appear to have any eyes.

It growled at the man and barred its teeth, clear gray teeth that seemed almost transparent. The man said something in his native tongue as the creature opened its mouth and hissed. The man shouted before something emerged from the creature's mouth. Its tongue was a miniature version of its head; teeth and all. The creature screeched before the miniature head of the tongue shot out of its mouth and snapped at the readers before everything went dark and quiet.


	2. Part 1

A hammer is swung through the air before it is slammed onto the broad side of a chisel. A stone cracked as the sharp end of the chisel punctured the rock as if it were a water soaked paper bag. A young man, possibly in his early to mid twenties is holding both hammer and chisel. He was dressed a bit like an archeologist; shorts vest and even a shade hat.

He continued to hammer the chisel into the rock as the view panned out to reveal he was trying to break apart a large boulder that seemed to be blocking the doorway into an ancient ruined temple surrounded by dense jungle overgrowth.

The temple was covered in overgrowth, but appeared to be a step-pyramid crumbling with age. Dozens of people were spread around the worksite, working diligently. Two were up at the top of the stone step-pyramid working on ancient drawings on the giant statue at the very top. The stone statue was shaped like a giant egg.

Other people were using grid searches and were digging in random places for artifacts. One girl used a brush to dust off the bony tip of an ancient spear that had long since been buried. A young man in another grid search area used another brush to dust off the remains of a human skull buried in a shallow grave.

Other groups of young archeologists carried equipment into the site under the supervision of an older man easily into his fifties or sixties. "Hey! Careful with that analyzer!" he yelled. "That thing is worth more than you'll make by the time you're my age." He went back to supervising the others before an older woman ran up to him. "Tommy just about got that boulder broken up yet Maggie?" he asked the woman.

"He's almost there," the older woman answered. "Umm, I've been looking for Kimberly but I have no idea where she's run off to this time. Have you seen her?" she asked him.

"Oh, she's hanging out with Robert by the river's edge," one of the younger girls mentioned as she held up the ancient skull she had been uncovering and examined it up close.

"That chick is always running off," another young man mentioned as he walked by, carrying a large bag over his shoulder. It sounded as if it contained some expensive metal tools. "Especially when she's bored," he added as he continued on his way.

"She must be waiting for Tommy to get that dam boulder out of the way," Maggie figured as she shook her head in disapproval. "Only wants to do things that interest her; sounds like you professor," she added with a smirk as she eyed the older man.

"That was many years ago," the Professor said in monotone. "Today, I do whatever my job entitles me to do. Now go get her and bring her here; she needs to find something to keep her busy while we wait on Tommy."

A short distance from the work site, a teenage girl, easily in her late teens, with brown hair tied up into a ponytail sat on the banks of the Amazon River with a make-shift fishing rod made from a stick and a piece of string sitting on the ground next to her. She sat on a rock with a hardhat in her lap; it was filled with piranha. She picked up one of the flesh eating fish by its tail and dangled it in front of her at arm's length. She whistled softly and shook the carnivorous fish playfully.

The water rippled slightly before an otter poked its head above the surface. It sniffed the air before it began to swim across the water in the girl's direction. It pulled itself up onto a log and waddled onto the shore. It was very cautious of the girl but she didn't appear to be a threat. It slowly got close enough to grab the fish out of her hands with its mouth.

It began to chew on the fish as the girl lightly patted the giant otter on the back of its neck. The otter was quite large, nearly as long from nose to the tip of its tail as she was tall. She giggled as the animal finished off its fish. The girl held up another fish that it happily grabbed from her hand.

"That's the Giant Otter," the voice of a young man said, catching the girl's attention. She perked up from her new pet and turned her head to face a young man no older than she was. "The longest species of otter in the world," he added as he approached the girl with quiet steps so as not to disturb the animal from its meal.

"Hey Robert," the girl said quietly as she continued to pet the wild animal. "How do you know so much about this guy?" she asked.

"Biology class," he chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders. "You can learn a lot from the right school," he answered. "So what are you doing way out here Kim?" he asked as he picked up a flat rock and chucked it across the water, skipping it about fifty feet out before it sank beneath the surface.

"Just trying to keep peace of mind," Kim replied as she fed the giant otter another piranha. "I feel like I've been sitting on the edge of a fence waiting for that temple to be opened up so we can get inside."

Another rock was skipped across the water. "And so you just go wandering off on your own in dangerous places?" Robert asked her as he prepared to toss another rock.

"I've been doing it ever since I was a little girl living on the border of the Redwood Forest in California," Kim answered. "I got lost once but I've always had a sense of adventure in my blood." She fed the otter another fish as a second giant otter came out of the water in search of the fish Kim was feeding to the other otter.

"California girl," Robert said in a sing-song voice. "I'm an Ohio man myself," he said with a smirk as he chucked another flat rock.

"Robert?" Kim asked, cutting him off before he could say anything else. "You're flirting with me," she said with a grin.

"Alright, you caught me," he confessed. "Skipping over the flirting: I was wondering if you wanted-" he started to say before Kim cut him off once again.

"Once we get state side lover boy," Kim purred, making Robert blush beat red. "I'd like to keep anything that happens here professional," she added as she went back to feeding the two otters. Robert smiled before an older woman is heard calling them.

"Robert! Kimberly!" the woman called out to them. Robert dropped the flat rock he had been holding. The two otters that Kim was feeding fled back into the water. "Professor Wilson wants you two lovebirds back at the dig site," she informed them as she approached the two young adults.

"Did Tommy get that boulder broken up yet Professor Maggie?" Kim asked curiously as she stood up and dumped the rest of the piranhas onto the ground before she used a piece of cloth to clean out the water and blood.

"Not quite," Professor Maggie responded. "He wants the two of you doing something productive until we clear a path into the ruins; this is a paid internship, you're not being paid to skip rocks or go fishing for the wildlife," she said as she eyed Kim's makeshift fishing pole.

"Alrighty then," Robert sighed.

"Tommy had better hurry up with that boulder or I'm gunna blow a gasket from boredom," Kim growled as she stomped back towards the dig site. She walked back into the dig site and was approached by Professor Wilson. "You wanted to see me Sir?" she asked.

"You're slacking off," he said simply.

"Excuse me?" she replied with a confused look.

Professor Wilson sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose underneath the nose piece of his eyeglasses. "Listen, kid. You're exceptionally talented for someone of your age and you have great potential; but I can't have you wandering off when there are things to be done." Kim tried to explain herself, but she was cut off. "I was just like you when I was your age," he said, interrupting her. He put a hand on her shoulder and they walked further into the dig site. "I became bored when I couldn't do any of the real exploring, but I did whatever I was tasked with by my superiors; and in your case, that would be working with the others out here until we can gain accesses to the temple." He concluded this speech by pointing at the stone step pyramid. "Now I know you can't wait to get in there, I can't wait either; but you don't see me feeding the wildlife to pass the time."

Kim was finally given a chance to respond after thinking about what he said. "I'll help out with the grid searches," she said quietly. She walked away and stepped down into a hole in the ground where a few of her colleagues were already hard at work uncovering the remains of a person long since dead.

"I'll let you know when the temple has been opened," Professor Wilson said before he walked off.

Kim grabbed up a brush and squatted down over the bones of a human arm separated from the rest of the body. "Kimmie got off lucky," a young man easily into his twenties chuckled before he was hit in the head with a rock. "OWW!" he yelled as he grabbed his head.

Kim lowered her hand and scowled at the young man before she went back to dusting off the arm bones.

"You know, he's right Kim," an older girl also in her twenties said. "Last week, Gerald was removed from the team because he wouldn't cooperate."

"Gerald mouthed off to his superiors and set off a rock slide that nearly killed half of us," Kim growled. "He was rude and incompetent and was removed not only for his inability to work alongside others, but for our safety." She went back to dusting off little pieces of wrist bones. "At least I do what I'm told without complaining."

"Perhaps not," the young man that Kim threw the rock at figured. "But you've been dusting that exact same spot for over a minute," he pointed out with his own brush. "Obviously something on your mind is troubling you," he conjured.

"Huh?" Kim asked before she looked down to where she had been dusting off the ball joint of the alleged humorous of the arm. "Oh!" she yelped, dropping the brush in the dirt in the process. "Hmm?" she hummed as a thought came to mind.

"What's up?" the young woman asked. "You find something besides dirt?"

"These arm bones are in the same grave as this body," Kim mentioned as she stood and walked around the excavated grave. "But they're separate from the body; almost like he was buried with his arm already detached. Same thing with his head," she noticed as the view showed the human skull sitting in the dirt a few feet away from the rest of the body. "The first three 'C' vertebra are fractured, indicating he was decapitated either shortly before or after his death," she speculated.

"What is she? A pathologist?" the young man whispered to his female colleague who giggled silently.

"Don't make me throw another rock at you," Kim threatened.

"PROFESSOR!" a young man is suddenly heard yelling from across the ruins. Everyone looked up as Professor Wilson and Professor Maggie ran towards Tommy who was trying to clear the bolder out of the doorway to the temple.

The two elders ran up to the young man as he held up a wireless remote with a few trigger buttons on it. Professor Wilson turned and shouted to his student interns. "Everyone, take cover!" he shouted.

A few minutes passed and everyone had taken cover behind trees or behind stone monuments on the other side of the dig site. They all waited patiently before the professor called out once again at the top of his lungs.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Professor Wilson called out. Everyone took cover, ducking and covering their ears as the Professor held up the remote and flicked a few of the switches before pressing the big red button in the middle.

The electrical current sparked to life in a nearby car battery that quickly spread through a series of wires that wound across the dig site before moving up into holes that had been made in the boulder. The electrical current went into the holes. An explosion of rock rippled throughout the dig site as the boulder was blown to smithereens, leaving behind smaller and much more manageable pieces that they could easily have removed and discarded.

After the explosion had subsided and the dust had cleared, work could begin on clearing away the smaller rocks and other debris that blocked the way into the ruins. The rocks were cleared, leaving behind a dark tunnel that went deep underground, light only penetrating a few yards before only total darkness remained.

Once most of the debris had been cleared, Kim was the first to stick her nose into the tunnel. She got close to the wall and examined ancient carvings of tribe's people battling what appeared to be giant scorpions that stood upright like a person. She was deeply fascinated by what she was seeing. She stepped away from the wall and looked down into the tunnel despite not being able to see much further than she had already entered.

Suddenly something hard was slammed onto her head. She jumped as a light was turned on; the light being emanated from the hardhat that had been placed on her head. Professor Wilson lowered his hand after putting the protective hat on her head and turning on the light. "No one goes anywhere without a partner and my permission," he said before he glanced back at her with warning in his eyes. "Nobody, Ms. Masters," he added before he gestured with his hand to allow her to continue deeper into the tunnel.

The two of them entered further into the tunnel with numerous others close behind. The deeper they went, the more spread apart they became. Most broke off from the main group and went down side tunnels while Kim and Professor Wilson continued straight down the main tunnel until they came to a dead end with a final tunnel branching off nearby.

On the floor at the entrance to the secondary tunnel at the dead end was the skeleton of another tribe's man. His rib cage had been shattered and several of his fingers on one of his hands were still there, but they appeared to have been melted. A large hole in his forehead indicating something had gone through, possibly what had killed him, but it could have happened after he died. Nearby lay the remains of what appeared to be a knife.

"Bone," Kim said as she held up the melted remains of the knife. "This was once a knife made of bone; the blade appears to have melted; only the sheath and the handle remain."

The sound of something scurrying in the darkness of the secondary tunnel caught Kim's attention. She looked up and aimed her helmet light down the tunnel. It went further underground, angling at a downwards angle.

"What could have made bone melt?" Kim quietly asked herself, focusing back on the bony fragment of a knife she was holding.

"This guy was stabbed," Professor Wilson observed, bringing Kim's attention back to her superior. He hadn't heard her question. She turned around to see him hovering over the skeleton.

"Possibly by what's left of this knife?" Kim asked as she spun on her feet so she was facing the professor.

"No," he responded. "Look at his rib cage," he advised her. Kim loomed over the skeleton and observed the remains. "Something several inches across was impaled through his chest and emerged out his back. Not exactly the most pleasant way to go."

Kim stood and walked to the far wall that ended the tunnel as Professor Wilson continued to study the skeleton. She placed a hand on the cold stone and ran it across the surface until she came to a distinctive carving that was shaped like a hand. She put her own hand into the carving; it was an almost perfect fit.

"This is a sharp, clean cut," Professor Wilson continued to observe as he stuck his fingers into the hole in the forehead of the skull. "Only a few inches across, anything moving at a fast enough speed would've had enough force to puncture brain matter, killing him instantly," he lectured. "Although it could have happened postmortem," he concluded his observations. "Well, unless there's something here that we've missed, we should probably head down this tunnel," he suggested as he shown his flashlight down the dark tunnel. "Kim?" he asked as he looked up at her.

Kim pushed against the stone wall and the carving pushed in like a giant stone button. She began to turn her hand counter-clockwise until the carving stopped turning after a quarter turn. A loud clanking is heard as she pulled her hand back and stepped away from the wall. Professor Wilson stood and shone his light on the wall as it began to slide away.

Dust fell from the ceiling as the wall disappeared, leaving behind the entrance to a darkened chamber, the depths of which couldn't be seen. They walked into the darkened chamber with only their flashlights leading the way. "Kimberly, this is easily one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the new century," he exclaimed as they looked around the room, shining the light on anything they could so they could tell what kind of chamber they were in.

"Oh, good," she responded in disbelief. "Cause I thought I was just hallucinating," she said with wide eyes. They both split up and went around the room in opposite directions from the entrance. "Professor, we need more light in here," she said as she felt along the wall so she didn't stumble into anything.

"I'm working on it," he called out through the darkness, feeling along the wall as well. He shone the flashlight against the wall and found an old torch with a usable wick still in place. With the use of a lighter, he lit the torch. The orange flames spread quickly and lit up the room a bit more.

The light wasn't enough, so he went around the room using the flames from the torch to light other torches until enough of the chamber was lit. He went across the room to light up a few more torches as Kim became fixated on an object across the room from the entrance. "It couldn't be," she said with disbelief.

Looming before her was a large hole several feet in diameter in the stone wall. The hole extended several more feet into the rock, many intricately lined carvings along its entire length. Outlining the edge of the hole was what appeared to be a stone doorway with ancient writing carved into the stone. She went into the short tunnel and wiped away dust from a green stone imbedded in the rock. She turned and looked back out the way they came and saw distant sunlight at the start of the tunnel.

"What have you found here Kim?" Professor Wilson asked, looking into the tunnel to see what she was up to.

She exited the tunnel by backing out; as she did she looked up towards the top of the stone doorway. From her point of view the entire tunnel and the entire stone doorway loomed over them before the scene quickly changed to the Fenton's lab as an inactivated ghost portal replaced the stone fixture. The view switched back to Kim and the professor as they looked upon the stone structure before them.

"It's a ghost portal," she whispered.

Her professor cocked an eyebrow at her. "And ugh…h-how do you know this?" he asked her suspiciously.

"My friends, the Fenton's, back home have one," she explained. "This thing looks and is designed just like their portal, at least in its first stage when it's inactive. This professor is an ancient ghost portal," she declared. "Activated when the sun is in the right position to shine down the tunnel and directly onto that stone in the center," she pointed out, indicating the green stone imbedded in the wall within the tunnel.

"Yes, yes, you've told me about them," he responded with increasing interest. "It's very unlikely that we'll be able to prove this anytime soon though," he figured. "But it's a good thought process you have going; and if you're right-" he started to say.

"Then that means humans have had access to the ghost zone much longer than previously thought," she concluded for him. "These ancient people were much more advanced than we could possibly have imagined."

Suddenly the distant sound of something inhuman screeching caught both of their attentions. They ran out of the newly discovered chamber and came to the next tunnel back where the skeleton of the ancient person lay. They aimed their flashlights down the tunnel. The screeching echoed throughout the rest of the tunnels.

"Professor," Kim said nervously. "I think we may have gotten ourselves into more than we've bargained for," she speculated.

The sound of something scurrying soon caught their attention. They aimed their lights towards the ground as something came down the tunnel and entered the crossbeams of their lights. It looked like a large scorpion, only without the large pincers.

"I think you may be right," Professor Wilson agreed, squinting his eyes at the creature.

"What is that thing?" Kim asked with disgust as the scorpion-like creature appeared to be observing them; it was summing them up as if they were prey. "It's not like anything I've ever seen."

"I haven't a clue," he responded. "I don't recall this type of creature ever appearing in the fossil record."

Kim kneeled down to get a closer look at the creature. "Well, this temple has been sealed off from the real world for over a thousand years; it could be possible that this is an old species that wasn't ever recorded."

"I guess," Professor Wilson figured. He pulled a flash camera out of a bag and took a picture of the creature. The sudden flash from the camera made the creature recoil. "It doesn't appear to like sudden flashes of bright light."

The sound of a man screaming suddenly echoed throughout the tunnels. After a few moments of silence, a woman is heard screaming, her scream echoed throughout the tunnels. Kim and her professor were growing more and more scared with each person screaming.

"Professor," Kim gulped nervously. "I think we should get back to the surface," she whimpered.

The sound of something screeching echoed throughout the tunnels once again before a man is seen running towards them from the darkness. His clothing was torn and he was bleeding profusely. Something, perhaps whatever was screeching, had attacked him.

"Professor!" the man called out. Kim and Professor Wilson backed away until their backs were against the far wall of the primary tunnel. They were in shock of the sight of this man's condition. "Run," he said simply before the small scorpion creature leapt through the air and suctioned itself to the man's face, wrapping its tail around his neck before he fainted, falling over backwards.

Kim and Professor Wilson were completely horror struck. Their eyes were wide and their mouths hung open in shock. The sound of a low growling brought their gazes up from their colleague to something emerging from the dark.

A large hand with long black bony fingers grabbed the wall and supported the creature it was attached to. A large humanoid creature that stood on its hind legs emerged from the darkness. Its armored body was almost skeleton-like. It didn't have any eyes and it had an elongated head with white translucent teeth. It growled in a low volume as it loomed over the fallen man.

Kim and Professor Wilson were scared stiff and were pressed against the wall out of fear. They couldn't move, their muscles tightened and fear kept them from running. Professor Wilson's breathing increased; he grabbed his chest and groaned in agony. Kim began sweating nervously; she quickly glanced at her professor before she looked back at the strange creature.

It appeared to sniff the smaller scorpion-like creature attached to the man's face. It screeched loudly, echoing throughout the tunnels. It looked up from the fallen man to the other two as they tried to hide against the wall directly in front of it.

It screeched before its long, spine-like tail came out from behind it. It lunged the sharp tip directly at Kim, but Professor Wilson shoved her out of the way. "ARGH!" he yelled as everything went into slow motion as he shoved her to the ground and stood in her place. The tip of the tail punctured his stomach and emerged out his back before pinning him to the wall. "YAAAAAAH!" he screamed as he coughed up blood.

"PROFESSOR!" Kim shouted, but her shouts caught the creature's attention. It removed its tail from the professor's stomach, freeing him from the wall and allowing him to stand on his own two feet. "YAAAAH!" she screamed as the creature lunged for her.

It grabbed her head and pinned her to the ground as it got in her face and growled. Kim mumbled because the creature's hand was covering her mouth. Her eyes were filled with terror; she knew something bad was about to happen.

The creature opened its mouth and hissed, revealing to Kim that its tongue was nothing more than a miniature head with the same sharp translucent teeth. Kim's eyes shifted up when she saw her professor standing over the creature with a pick axe. The creature failed to notice the man as he raised the axe over his head. It screeched one last time before Professor Wilson brought the pick axe down on the creature's head.

The sharp end of the axe punctured right through the top of its head, went through its mouth and out the bottom of its head. The professor then swung the axe with it still imbedded in the creature's head, tripping the creature off its feet, sending it crashing into the wall before it collapsed to the ground dead.

The axe didn't last too long though; what leaked from the creature's wound was a yellow ooze that ate away at the axe, melting the metal away until nothing but the wooden handle remained. It clanked to the ground as Kim staggered to her feet.

She was still horror stricken. She gasped when Professor Wilson groaned after backing up into the wall and collapsed. "Professor!" she gasped as she ran to his aid. "Oh no, you're hurt," she whimpered upon taking notice of his stomach. "You risked your life to save mine?"

"Let the old die so the young may live," he tried to reply with a chuckle but he was overcome with pain. "Quick! Get back to the surface!" he ordered her. "Save yourself!"

"No sir," Kim retaliated as tears began to stream from her eyes. "I'm not gunna let you die here!"

The sound of another creature screeching is heard echoing through the tunnels. Professor Wilson grabbed Kim by her shirt collar and pulled her in close. "I risked my life so you could live," he groaned. "Now get out of here before more of those things show up; I'm not gunna tell you again."

Kim stood and backed away slowly; she raised her arm out in front of her and activated a switch on her bracelet. Her clothing suddenly changed into that of her red ghost huntress suit, hood and all. "Thank you professor," she whispered. "Someday, hopefully I'll be given the chance to repay you."

"Live a full and successful life," Professor Wilson whispered. "Do that for me, and you won't have to." Another creature screeched, echoing through the tunnels. "Now go, don't let my sacrifice be in vein."

Kim clicked her feet together and jumped into the air before her glider formed underneath her. She hovered in the air for a moment before she turned. The rockets fired and she disappeared down the primary tunnel as she raced for the surface.

Professor Wilson grunted and groaned as he pulled a handgun out of his vest pocket and loaded it. Another creature soon emerged from the darkness and screeched at him. He raised the gun and cocked it. "I hope you like lead you ugly mother f-" Before he could fire, the creature ducked and another smaller scorpion-like creature jumped over it and covered the camera view, supposedly sticking itself to the professor's face.

* * *

With her ghost suit's hood covering her face; Kim's emotions couldn't be seen, but she could be heard sobbing as she fled through the tunnels on her glider as fast as she could. Her hood's face shield provided night vision so she could see her way through the tunnels now that she no longer had a light source. "I need to get out of here, and call for help," she advised herself. "I just hope I don't run into anymore of those-"

Before she knew what hit her; another creature emerged from another side tunnel in front of her and swiped at her with its long spine-like tail. The tip of the tail struck the glider, flipping Kim through the air before she crashed into the ground; the glider bounced off the wall and landed next to her.

She held her head and groaned before looking up to see the creature that had knocked her off her board. There was still no light so she saw it with her suit's night vision, but it was the same type of creature that had attacked her and the professor. It screeched loudly, barring its teeth as its screech echoed through the tunnels.

"Too late," she shrieked, adding to what she was saying before she was knocked off her glider. She wasn't prepared for the first attack but she was ready for this one. She jumped to her feet and got into a defensive stance. "Alright ugly! Give me your worst!" she challenged it. The creature screeched once again, this time opening its mouth and extending its tongue to reveal the smaller head attached to the end of it. "Eh eh," Kim said as she shook her head before turning to run away.

The creature screeched as it raised its tail and lunged the tip towards the girl. It missed and sped past her before piercing the ground several feet ahead of her. It moved the body of its tail to the side, knocking Kim off her feet once again.

"YAAAH!" she screamed as she was forced up against the wall by the spine-like tail. The tip retracted and Kim was freed from the wall. She stumbled on her feet before she looked back at the creature as it screeched once again. It got down on all fours and charged the girl. "Grrr!" Kim growled. She reached over her head and grabbed for an anti-ghost weapon that was draped across her back. "You may not be a ghost, but I hope this hurts anyway!"

She fired the weapon just as the creature jumped through the air as it lunged for her. It screeched so its mouth was open as it lunged for the girl. The energy blast from her weapon went into the creature's open mouth and went down its throat. The resulting explosion not only killed the creature, but blew it to pieces, sending acidic blood all over the walls and floor of the tunnel.

Luckily Kim wasn't hit with any of the creature's remains. "Eat that!" she shouted angrily before she lowered the weapon to her side. She knelt down and examined the floor as the acidic blood ate through it, leaving burn marks on the melting stone. "The bone knife, the axe, and now the stone of the tunnel; these creatures have highly corrosive acid for blood," she concluded.

The sound of more creatures screeching made her shy away from the dead creature's remains. She picked up her glider and ran through the tunnels as fast as she could. Three more creatures emerged from the tunnel and screeched angrily upon finding the remains of their brethren before they gave chase.

* * *

Interns still on the surface were distracted from their grid searches when the ground began shaking violently. "Earthquake!" a young woman shrieked.

"In this part of the Amazon!" a young man shouted.

The shaking continued before something shot out of the tunnel entrance. Kim was riding her glider with a third creature holding onto the back for dear life. It brought its tail upwards and pierced the tip through the bottom of the glider. "Whoa!" she screamed when the sharp barb appeared in front of her.

She fell off her glider and rolled to the dirt as her glider crashed into the ground a short distance away, sending other interns scattering. Kim looked up to see her glider being held up with the tail still puncturing it from underneath. Two sets of bony hands grabbed the sides of the glider and ripped it apart. The creature screeched again, sending half a dozen interns scattering.

"That was my only glider!" Kim shouted angrily. She yelped and jumped backwards when the creature snapped at her with its tongue. "NOO!" Kim screamed when one of her colleagues ran up to the creature and swung a shovel.

The metal scoop of the shovel literally bounced off the armor plating that covered the creature. It screeched before knocking the girl away with its tail. It screeched again just as two more of the creatures emerged from the tunnel and screeched when they entered daylight.

The three creatures screeched in unison, scattering what interns still remained. Two of the creatures gave chase to the interns as they ran for their lives. Several of them screamed for their lives as they were attacked behind bushes. The creature that had come out with Kim stood its ground and focused on the young adult.

Kim pulled out her anti-ghost weapon and charged it as she and the deadly creature walked in a circle around each other. "Alright ugly," she said. It hissed in retaliation. "I'm gunna tear your head off," she threatened. "How's that suit you?" she asked it sarcastically.

The creature screeched again before it got down on all fours and charged the girl. Kim reacted quickly and fired her weapon in rapid succession. The creature reacted just as quickly and jumped into the air and flipped over Kim as she followed it with her gun, firing into the air.

It landed on the ground and turned around quickly while Kim was preparing to fire directly into its face, but it extended its tongue and the tiny head at the end of it grabbed the weapon. It turned its head and pulled the weapon from her hands, throwing it away. It turned back to the girl and screeched as she backed away.

Kim made a fist as two sharp blades protruded from a device on her right arm. The creature attempted to strike her with the smaller head on its tongue, but she swiped her arm and cut the creatures tongue off with the blades extruding from her arm. The creature screeched in agony and stepped away from her as its acidic blood spurted from its mouth.

Kim didn't come away unharmed this time. "YAAAAH!" she screamed as the yellow acid began corroding away the double blades. She grabbed her glove with her left hand and removed it before tossing it away. She then grabbed her hood which had been splattered with more of the acid. She ripped it off and tossed it as well. The glove and the hood were corroded away within a matter of seconds. "That was way too close."

She looked up as the creature was staggering around. The acid had stopped spewing from its mouth and it was regaining its composure. It screeched but not as loudly. It spun around and wacked Kim with its tail with enough force to send her flying almost the length of a football field. She came back down in the middle of the nearby Amazon River.

A view from underneath the water showed a motionless Kim splashing into the water from above. She had been knocked out cold after being struck by the creature's massive tail. Her body went limp as she began to sink. The water was dark yellow and murky, a few cuts and scrapes on Kim's skin leaked small amounts of blood that dispersed into the water.

Air bubbles came out of her mouth, waking her from her unconscious state. Her eyes opened and the first thing she took in was the murky water she was in. She looked around and took in her surroundings. Dead plant material and wildlife surrounded her. More air bubbles escaped from her mouth when she gasped upon seeing something that frightened her, and it wasn't one of the creatures.

The water may have been murky, but Kim could see them coming from a mile away. First it was just one, and then three and soon dozens more began to swim in her direction. Hordes of piranha had caught the scent of her blood and were going to the source. She gasped again and tried to swim away, lucky for her another animal that dwelled in the river came to her rescue.

A group of Giant Otters swam between the girl and the piranhas and attacked the ferocious fish. The fish dispersed and the otters gave chase, clearing the water once again. A smile came over Kim's face and she appeared to let out a sigh of relief before a long spine-like tail submerged in front of her.

Kim tried to scream, but only more bubbles erupted from her mouth before the tail wrapped itself around her, pinning her arms to her side. She struggled to get away but she was pulled from the water and turned upside down and dangled in front of yet another creature that hissed in her face.

Kim grunted as she continued to fight for her freedom, but the creature's tail was wrapped around her too tightly. "When I get out of this you are so dead!" she half yelled as she struggled to at least free her arms. The creature screeched once more before it tossed Kim into the woods with one mighty swing of its tail. "YAAAAAH!" she screamed as she flew over the tree tops.

She crashed through the foliage and collided with the top of a tree. She dropped straight down and hit her head on a thick tree branch, flipping her over in mid air before she crashed into another branch on her back. She stopped falling for a moment and groaned in agony before she slipped off the branch and fell the last twenty feet to the ground and landed on her back.

She was bleeding from her forehead among other places. She groaned and rocked her head from side to side. "You'll…pay for…that," she groaned. She opened her eyes and looked towards the sky as three more of the creatures stood over her and snapped at each other. Her vision began to blur as she started to fall unconscious. "You guys are…ugly…mother…f-" she managed to say before her eyes closed and her head went limp.

One of the creatures reached out with a bony hand, it is implied that it grabs her but from her point of view looking up towards the sky; its hand blocks the view, blacking out the scene.

* * *

The blackout changed colors to match that of the ghost zone; floating rocks and purple doors scattered the area before a swirling green portal opened up and the specter speeder passed through. The portal closed before the rockets fired and the speeder sped off.

A view of the cockpit showed Jazz and Ron sitting at the controls. Jazz steered the vehicle while Ron worked the dashboard and kept an eye on the lights and other knobs to make sure the ship was in perfect working order.

Sitting on the floor behind them were Danny and Dani, both in their ghost forms. They sat Indian style and were trying to keep peace of mind. They both had band aids and other bandages covering wounds from a recent battle they'd had with each other.

Dani sat watching Danny as he held his hands out in front of him with his palms pointed up. His eyes and his fingers twitched as he tried to bring forth his powers. "So why do we have to do this right now?" Dani asked with frustration. "I'd rather be getting ready to go trick-or-treating," she huffed.

"After what happened last year?" Danny asked as a reminder to her. "You can wait; we don't need you getting a sugar high," he teased her as he continued to focus on a growing power in his hands.

"I'm a bit more mature now than I was back then," Dani argued. "I'm not the little girl that joined your family one year ago yesterday anymore," she reminded him as she put her hands over her chest. "I think I can handle a little sugar without attacking anybody."

"We know," Jazz said calmly to reassure the girl. "We won't be long though, we'll be back in time for you to meet up with the others."

"I hope so," Dani huffed. "Because Becky's bring her baby sister," she explained. "And I really wanna see the baby," she whined.

"Her mom finally had the baby?" Ron asked, looking back from the front seat next to Jazz.

"A week and a half past the due date, fifteen hours of labor, finally resorted to a C-section; yes," Dani answered. "None of us have seen her yet and I'm really excited so I'd like this trip to go quickly."

"Focus on the task at hand Dani," Danny advised his younger sister. "This is our priority right now." He focused on his powers until his hands became aglow with an orange haze before orange flames erupted in the palm of his hands. The flames didn't grow out of control and they didn't seem to be hurting him.

"Wow!" Dani gasped in amazement. She leaned in for a closer look. "So is this what you've been working on over the weekend?"

"Yup," Danny confirmed before he transferred the flames over from one hand to the other. "I used similar techniques that Frostbite taught me to control the freezing sensation. This is all I can do with it though," he admitted.

"Well no formal training with it limits what you can do with it," Ron reminded him. "At least what you can control anyway," he added with a shrug.

"I still say we need to go see Frostbite instead, Danny," Jazz commented from the driver's seat. "I mean, not only do I know where that is, but he knows who to take you to so you can learn to control this power."

"Just follow the directions I punched into the ships mainframe," Danny advised her as he carefully placed the flames in Dani's hands. She had cupped them into a bowl so she could easily hold the flames. "And Clockwork knows more about what's going on than Frostbite," he informed her. "Besides, we can't go to see Frostbite until this heating sensation presents itself in our human forms with the exception of our ghost senses," he added.

"And I've never been to Clockwork's lair," Dani mentioned. "And I really wanna see where he lives," she half whined.

"Of the four of us, only Danny has been there," Jazz reminded the young teen. "You should be the one driving," she growled at her brother.

"Before we left you wouldn't let him get behind the wheel," Ron mentioned as he cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"That was when I thought we were going to see Frostbite," Jazz growled. "I know where the realm of the Far Frozen is, not where Clockwork's clock tower is," she practically snapped.

"Well consider this a chance to add another location to the map of the ghost zone you have implanted in your brain," Danny mocked before the flames in Dani's hands grew out of control.

"YAAAH!" she shrieked. She instinctly used her freezing energy and froze the flames before they could grow too far out of control. The iced flames quickly melted into a puddle of water at her feet. "My bad," she said with a cheeky grin as Danny smirked with a cocked eyebrow.

Something on the ship's dashboard began beeping like a distress signal. "We've got something on radar," Ron warned the others. "Something big," he added. "Looks like some sort of tall structure," he observed.

"Like a clock tower," Danny smirked with a cocky grin. "We're here," he informed the others.

The speeder was maneuvered around several large green gears that were floating in the ghost zone before they flew up to a large clock tower with two smaller towers branching off on either side. "This place is really giving me the creeps," Jazz shuddered. "Are you sure this is the place?" she asked nervously.

Danny looked at her with an expression on his face that said, 'really?' "You're doubting me?" he asked. Jazz stuttered for words but Danny laughed it off. "I've been here on more than one occasion," he reminded her. "He's done a really good job at restoring this place after Vlad destroyed it," he commented on Clockwork's craftsmanship. "Alright, fly the ship straight through the face of the clock on top; you two and the ship will phase right through," he advised his older sister.

Jazz didn't have to be told twice. She stepped on the pedal and the ship moved forward. Danny and Dani changed back into their human forms so they too could be phased through the face of the clock. They transformed back into their ghost forms moments after Jazz pulled the vehicle to a full and complete stop in the middle of Clockwork's lair.

"I don't think anybody's home," Dani said as the four teens stepped out of the specter speeder and into the dimly lit lair that Clockwork called home.

"He's the master of time," Danny reminded her. "He knew we were coming before we even decided to come."

"Is that why he fled the coop?" Ron asked curiously.

"Fled the coop he has not," the voice of a familiar man is heard echoing throughout the lair, shocking all four teens. They looked around frantically for where the voice came from but to no avail. "Back soon enough will he be."

"Whose there!" Danny called out demandingly. "Show yourself!"

From the darkness across the room, a darkly cloaked ghost emerged. Long sleeves hung from his arms, his hands hidden within the sleeves of the other arm in front of him. His hood was wide and deep and kept his face hidden in darkness, only his glowing red eyes shown through. A green skull was pinned to his cloak at the base of his neck, holding his cloak on. The dark purple cloak itself was torn and tattered, ancient in appearance.

"Who is this guy?" Dani asked curiously, leaning closer to Danny so only he could hear her. "He sounds familiar, but I can't make out who he is."

"A friend of mine, Clockwork is," the ancient cloaked ghost answered them. The siblings were shocked that he had managed to hear them despite their whispering to each other. "You will find out who, soon enough, am I," he reassured them. "But first, a test for you, have I."

"A test?" Dani asked with a grin.

"Oh common dude!" Danny sighed angrily. "It's the weekend," he complained.

"Worry, do not, young Phantom," the ancient ghost said as he crouched down and got into a defensive stance. "Fight me, and beat me, if you can," he challenged the Phantom duo.

"Think we can take him?" Dani asked, not bothering to whisper this time, no point if he could hear them anyway.

"I've never encountered him before," Danny stated. "I don't know what he's capable of."

"A demonstration then, perhaps," the ancient ghost said, his eyes squinting into thinner slits. "ARGH!" he yelled as he thrust one of his arms forward. He didn't release an energy attack; instead he released an invisible shockwave that vibrated through the air.

"Huh?" Danny said, his eyes widening before an invisible force sent him crashing back into a gear that stuck out of the floor. Dust and debris surrounded and blocked him from view.

"Danny!" Dani screamed fearfully, looking towards the veil of dust that he had disappeared into. She heard a whooshing noise and turned to see the ancient ghost had appeared next to her. Before she could react, he spun around and kicked her hard in the side. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Stiffened in agony, she crashed into the floor and skidded to a stop several yards away.

The ancient ghost turned his attention back to Danny as he shoved the gear off to the side after it had fallen on him. He emerged from the veil of dust and glared at the ancient ghost. "Get back in the Speeder," he demanded Jazz and Ron. They didn't need to be told twice and immediately dove back in for their own safety. 'That was a nice move,' Danny thought to himself as he prepared to defend himself against another attack.

The ancient ghost merely chuckled. "Why thank you," he thanked the ghost boy for the compliment.

"Huh?" Danny said, his eyes widening in shock.

"Read minds, I can," the ancient ghost informed him as he tapped the top of his head with a bony green finger. "Tip of the iceberg, my powers, that is."

Danny was stunned by this ancient ghost's powers, and he hadn't even begun to demonstrate what he was truly capable of. He looked past the ancient ghost to Dani as she finally sat up off the floor holding her stomach. "You alright?" he asked her with concern.

"I feel like I was hit by a bus," Dani groaned as she stumbled to her feet. "This guy is strong, no doubt. We might actually break a sweat with this guy," she added with a grin.

"Lift a finger, I won't have to," the ancient ghost snickered as he looked between the two Phantom's. "Fight each other for me, you two will." Both Danny's seemed confused before the ancient ghost focused his attention on Danny. He lifted his hand and waved it as he spoke. "Fight your sister, you will."

"I will fight my sister," Danny repeated before he glared at her.

"That's not good," Dani said as her eyes widened. Danny sprinted towards her and tackled her to the floor. She grabbed him by his wrists and held him away from her. "Snap out of it!" she yelled at him. They struggled for a few seconds before Dani managed to toss him off. The ancient ghost mussed to himself as the siblings brawled on the floor.

Standing back on their feet, Dani ducked and served as Danny threw punch after punch at her. Deciding to make her own move, she batted his next punch away leaving him open for her to land a punch of her own, nailing him right in the jaw. The blow was powerful enough to make him stagger backwards before he recovered.

He rubbed his jaw after regaining his balance. "I don't know what just came over me," he offered as an explanation for the attack on his sister.

"Easily manipulated, the weak-minded are," the ancient ghost explained.

"We have to attack before he has a chance to retaliate," Danny suggested.

"We rush him together then," Dani said, agreeing with his suggestion.

Danny was the first to push off the floor with his feet, charging his opponent. He pulled back his fist and prepared to throw it forward, but his opponent raised one of his hands with his green bony palm facing him. "Whoa!" Danny yelled as he suddenly froze in mid-air, mere feet from his target.

"ARGH!" Dani shouted out a battle cry as she propelled herself off the floor and then the wall, coming at the Ancient Ghost from the side. Raising his second hand, he froze the girl in mid-air as well before he waved his hand, dragging her body through the air with it until she crashed into the far wall.

"Gunna have to do better than that if you ever hope to defeat me, you are," the ancient ghost sighed with some disappointment.

"Good thing we're just getting started," Danny snickered as his eyes began glowing more brightly.

"Huh?" the ancient ghost questioned. One of his bright red eyes squinted as he pondered what the ghost boy was about to do. Suddenly, two bolts of energy shot out of Danny's eyes. The ancient ghost just barely had enough time to react. He released his hold on Danny and with a sudden flash of purple; the two bolts of energy were deflected into the wall.

"What is that thing!" Danny asked, his eyes focused on the glowing energy sword that was being emitted from within the ancient ghost's right sleeve. It glowed bright violet and hummed and pulsated, extending nearly four feet beyond his reach. "It kinda looks like my mom's energy saber," he realized.

To test this new weapon he fired off a series of weak ecto-blasts that the ancient ghost easily deflected. "Hmm, too easy," he snickered with a wide grin.

"Danny!" Dani called out from the far wall where she was currently still being held against the wall by an invisible force. "Fire a stronger blast!" she yelled. "You've gotta get him to lose his concentration so I can break free from his control."

"Right," he agreed with a nod. Turning his attention back to his opponent, he pulled back both hands to his side and focused to ecto-energy balls in them until they began to spark and pulsate. "Deflect this!" he challenged him before he thrust both hands forward, releasing his attack.

The two energy balls fused into one and created a continuous stream of energy. The ancient ghost merely smirked as he brought up his energy sword and put it right in the path of the attack. The bolt of energy was striking the sword, but it didn't explode nor did it rebound. The energy sword was absorbing the sparking energy.

"That can't be," Danny said in awestruck. "I have got to make him use his other hand so he'll release Dani," he reminded himself. The ancient ghost indeed had managed to maintain his hold over the ghost girl while protecting himself from Danny's blast.

"Don't worry Danny, you let me take care of that," Jazz suddenly called out over the specter speeder's speaker.

"What!" Danny said angrily as he looked past his opponent to see the specter speeder with Jazz and Ron messing with the controls to the weapon system. A small door opened above the cockpit and a laser gun appeared before it turned and aimed in their direction. "Jazz! Don't!" Danny yelled, but it was too late. At maximum fire power, the shot was made.

"What!" the ancient ghost gasped when the shot was fired. He had turned to see what the commotion was when Danny became fearful, but now he understood. His eyes widened as the bolt of energy from the speeder got closer to him.

The light from the attack was enough to light up his face which had remained hidden within his hood. For just a moment his long ghostly green face could be seen. He had a purple section extending from his nose to the top of his head. Two large horns extended out from either side of his head, explaining why his head appeared so wide with the hood up.

He jumped back, allowing the energy blast to pass him and strike the energy sword that was already absorbing energy from Danny's attack. Then with one swift motion, a second energy sword extended from within his right sleeve and was swung up. Upon meeting the first sword, both extended up towards the ceiling of the lair, bringing the energy rays with it.

A view from outside Clockwork's lair showed the now merged energy beam shoot up and through the roof with a loud bang.

Back inside the lair, dust and debris fell from the ceiling where a large hole now sat from where the energy blast had gone through. "Phew, too close, that was," the ancient ghost sighed with relief.

"HUMPF!" Dani grunted as she fell to the floor after being released from the invisible force that had held her against the wall. "Thanks Jazz!" she called out with a thumbs up.

"But if you could please refrain from doing it again that would be great," Danny suggested as he got back to his feet after the blast had apparently blown him off them.

From inside the specter speeder, Jazz and Ron chuckled nervously to themselves. "Sorry, my bad," she apologized for the destructive blast.

"Great, it looks like he's got two of those things," Danny sighed upon refocusing back onto his opponent, referring to his energy swords in general.

"And well-practiced in the use of both of them, am I," the ancient ghost informed him as he crossed them, forming an X as a barrier in front of his body. "So, for the next round, ready are you?" he asked mockingly.

Both Phantom siblings stood ready to defend themselves as their opponent looked back and forth between them, as if deciding which one of them he should attack first. Finally he made his decision and made his move.

"ARGH!" he hollered as he jumped into the air and front flipped in Dani's direction. She dove out of the way as his energy swords separated and plunged into the stone wall. He dragged them to floor, parallel to one another as Dani fled several yards away across the lair. She skidded to a stop as Danny sped in from the side and skidded to a stop next to her.

The ancient ghost removed his energy swords from the wall, leaving two parallel gouges cut into the stone. He smirked and with one swift motion, spun his body and, using his telekinetic abilities, pulled the stone pillar from the wall and threw it at the Phantom siblings.

"ARGH!" Danny and Dani yelled as they thrust their hands forward, each sending out a blast of ecto-energy that met the stone pillar and caused it to explode on impact, filling the room with dust and debris. From out of the dust, they flew towards their opponent to catch him off guard.

"Huh?" Dani questioned when they emerged from the dust and realized that he wasn't there. "Where did he go?"

"Learn to observe all of your surroundings, you really must," the ancient ghost advised them as he appeared above them from out of nowhere.

"WHAA!" Danny and Dani both gasped out of shock; neither had time to react before their opponent grabbed them by the backs of their heads and pushed them into the wall on either side of the hole he had made just moments before.

Dust and rubble fell out of place and buried them in their own piles as the ancient ghost floated away and observed his work. "Both failed my test, you have," he sighed heavily as he shook his head with disappointment.

Rubble shifted and Dani poked her head through before she sat up, unburying herself. She gasped and coughed to catch her breath. She appeared to have been taking quite the beating. "Danny, what more can we do against this guy?" she asked for advice. "Danny?" she asked when he didn't respond.

The rubble that had buried him began to move and give off green smoke. Dani gasped and went intangible as a sudden explosion of energy sent the rubble in all directions. "ARGH!" Danny screamed at the top of his lungs as he released his energy from his entire body. He suddenly pushed himself off the ground and charged the ancient ghost who seemed impressed by the attack.

The wind from the explosion of energy was strong enough to blow off his hood, revealing his aging complexion and large horns that curled in on themselves on either side of his head. The wind stopped and the rubble stopped flying as Danny appeared in front of his opponent with his fists infused with energy.

"Ah, got a spark left after all, you have," the ancient ghost snickered with a grin. He raised his energy swords and swung them at Danny who caught them in his energized hands. Smoke rose from Danny's gloves as the energy swords began to burn them away. Danny descended to the floor and held back the energy swords at bay.

Now, face to face with his enemy, Danny realized he was looking into the face of Nocturne, the ghost of sleep and dreams. A look of shock spread across his face when he made this realization.

"No way," Jazz gasped from within the specter speeder.

"Not him again," Dani grunted as she stumbled to her feet. "No wonder he sounded familiar."

"Common Danny, stronger than this, you are," he antagonized the boy. He pushed harder and his energy swords came closer to Danny's face. "Me your real power show," he challenged him.

Not wanting to be antagonized by this enemy, Danny regained his confidence. He gritted his teeth and shot a death glare into the eyes of his enemy as his own eyes began glowing orange. As his anger turned to rage, his hands suddenly erupted into orange flames; not from the energy swords burning them, but from his own power.

"Huh?" the ancient ghost questioned, turning his head and cocking an eyebrow at the boy's flaming hands. Suddenly, the flames began to spread down his arms and erupted across his entire body to the point where it looked like he was actually on fire. "Uh oh," he grunted before a sudden blast of heat and flames sent him across the room, crashing and rolling across the floor until he came to a stop against the far wall.

No longer on fire, but a burning rage still lit in his eyes, Danny raced across the room and stood over his fallen opponent. He stood defensively as he formed a ball of ecto-plasmic flames in one of his hands as he prepared to thrust it on his foe.

The ancient ghost merely laughed as Danny prepared his final strike. "Are you really gunna attack your opponent while he's down?" he asked the infuriated ghost boy. "This wasn't a test to make you angry," he informed him.

"Oh, and what kind of test would have me fight with the likes of you?" Danny snapped at him in retaliation before another voice spoke out against him, halting him from proceeding with his final attack.

"That would be a test to bring out the best of your abilities," yet another voice echoed throughout the room. Another figure came out of the darkness of a doorway. It was none other than Clockwork himself. He was currently in his elderly form. "And while you haven't passed the test; you have opened our eyes to this new ability that you both possess." Danny and Dani exchanged confused glances with each other.

"Whoa, wait a minute," Jazz argued as she and Ron emerged from the specter speeder and joined the Phantom siblings. "Then why did you need to test them?" she asked out of curiosity. "You're the master of time, you should have known about this new power before we did. So why test them on something you already knew about?"

"Because I want Daniel to understand these powers before he comes asking for help to control them," Clockwork retaliated.

"I understand that I can't fully grasp the control over this fire power until it awakens while I'm in my human form," Danny intervened. "I understand that once it does, then I can seek help to control it."

"And we know who to go to for help," Dani added. "Frostbite will know of whom to take us to, but we have other reasons for coming here."

"Ah," the ancient sighed as he floated around them and approached Clockwork before he turned to face the four teens. "Awakening so suddenly, they wish to understand why this power is."

"And perhaps know who this old geezer is," Dani added, pointing to the ancient ghost that they had recently been fighting that also happened to resemble Nocturne with the exception of his green skin. "And why does he look like that jerk ghost Nocturne?" she added angrily.

"You have all heard of him before," Clockwork answered with a smile. He seemed to be cooperating with their requests now that he knew of what they wanted to know. "He is one of the six of us 'Timeless Ghosts'."

"My son, Nocturne is," the ancient ghost informed them. "The Master of Time, Clockwork is; but the Master of Body and Mind, I am."

He raised his hand and pinched his fingers together. He flicked his pinched fingers and dust irradiated away from his hand as a small bright light sped across the room and hit Ron in the face. He immediately went limp and collapsed to the floor snoring.

"The ability to enter and read our minds? Control our body's on a whim? And he can put people to sleep with the flick of his fingers? I think he might be a teacher," Dani whispered to Danny with a grin.

"Key aspect Dani," he responded. "He can put people to sleep with bits of sand; he's the Sandman."

"At your service, Mr. Phantom," the Sandman said as he bowed respectively.

"Very good Danny," Clockwork nodded in approval. "Not very good in school, but your insight serves you well. But that only answers one of your requests," he added with a bit of an attitude.

"We aren't asking for your help in controlling this power," Danny reminded him. "Dani and I have already accepted that; what we want to know is how and why we are suddenly starting to be overcome with this heat sensation."

"And why it is corrupting our freezing powers," Dani added. She infused her hand with cold energy and formed an ice crystal that quickly melted into a small puddle of water. "I can't control water."

"Yet, my child," the Sandman responded as Clockwork changed into his adult form. He flew forward and circled around the two siblings. "Possess powers, stronger than any of ours, combined the two of you have. Control both fire and ice, create a mixture of the two, learn to control water too, you will learn."

"Sandman!" Clockwork is heard calling out but he is not seen. "It is not your place to tell them of this information."

The others looked up at Clockwork, but he cocked an eyebrow. "That wasn't me," he informed them.

"It was me," Clockwork's voice called out again, but Clockwork didn't speak. He and the others turned to look at the dark doorway behind Clockwork to see another figure floating there. He looked just like Clockwork and even had the same clock imbedded within his chest. He wore the same cloak but it wasn't purple, it was red. He was missing the gear holding the cloak to his body and he was missing the watches on his gloves. In place of the watch attached to his waist line was a metallic belt with three gems inserted into it; the red gem of life, the yellow gem of form, and the blue gem of fantasy. He held a staff with the triangular power gem inserted into the top. "And it would be my job to tell them what they request to know."

"Ah, Lord Comet," the Sandman addressed the newcomer formally as he bowed before the second Clockwork. "Welcome back, was your journey successful?"

"Quite," the second Clockwork responded before he focused his attention on the confused and slightly startled Phantom Siblings. "Haven't seen you in a few months, Danny, and your fire powers have developed at an alarming rate."

"Alright, so what's the deal with you Clockwork?" Danny asked with a grin. "Are you two twins or something?"

"Of sorts," the purple clad Clockwork said, nodding his head from side to side.

"I was once Clockwork," the red clad Clockwork added. "You freed me from the thermos in the far future," he reminded the teen. "I repaired the reality of this timeline after Vlad wreaked havoc with it."

"And I was freed from the thermos after Frostbite and the other far frozen found me," the purple clad Clockwork mentioned. "Although, this caused a problem in the balance of the ghost zone."

"Our leader, the Grand Observant, wouldn't allow there to be two Clockworks," the red clad Clockwork informed the young teens. "So I graciously took up the position of Master of Reality, seeing as my predecessor failed to control the powers she was charged with."

"She was removed from power among the rest of us timeless ghosts after the imprisonment of Pariah Dark," the purple clad Clockwork informed them. "We have been without a Master of Reality ever since."

"I have taken up the role," the red clad Clockwork added. "And so things aren't so confusing, I have changed my appearance as well as my name to fit my new role."

"So we've noticed," Danny said as he looked the newcomer up and down. "So what do you go by now?" he asked curiously.

"Comet," he replied simply.

"Comet?" Dani asked in confusion. "I would have pegged him as a 'Supernova' guy myself," she whispered to Danny who chuckled to himself.

"Amuses me, the child's sense of humor does," the Sandman snorted. "After the one she takes from, she does."

"Humph," Comet grunted. "If you're done messing around Ms. Phantom then perhaps I'll reveal to you what I've learned from studying the two of you more closely," he suggested.

Danny and Dani stopped snickering as Comet raised his staff as it began glowing yellow. A few gears that stuck out of the floor suddenly began to creak and morphed into seats for them to sit on. Danny and Dani took the two seats closest to them. Comet's staff then began to glow blue before Ron suddenly woke up to find himself in Jazz' arms.

He gasped as he awoke and looked around in a complete daze, completely unaware of everything that had happened. "What happened?" he asked as he looked around, noticing that there was now two Clockworks. "What did I miss?"

"A lot," Jazz said before she helped him to his feet. They both took seats next to Danny and Dani before Comet continued.

"I will explain the source of the fire sensation that the two of you are experiencing, but I thought I'd first explain a few things that I've learned about you halfas that was previously unknown before," Comet informed them.

"Like what?" Dani asked.

"Oh, I'm about to be given a lecture on a Sunday," Danny complained. "We had better not be tested on this too."

"You won't be tested if you don't complain," Comet growled, making Danny slouch into his seat. "You two and Vlad Plasmius are the only halfas to ever exist; in this world at least. If you recall, a Ms. Possible has become the fourth and only other halfa in existence."

"That's no secret dude," Dani scoffed as she scowled and folded her arms. "We've met her before and she developed her powers rather quickly with Danny teaching her."

"Where are you getting at?" Jazz asked curiously.

"What I'm getting at is that the limits of your powers extend from how you got them," Comet informed them. "Danielle received her powers due to being cloned from Danny more than a year ago. As a result she has developed all of Danny's powers."

"Yeah, my freezing powers, my ghostly screech and even duplication," Dani recounted. "Danny already had these abilities before I started to develop them, and we started developing these fire powers at the exact same time."

"And I will explain how that is possible in due time," Comet reassured them. "Whatever powers Danny possess' you too possess, so I will be speaking for both of you. Danny has received his powers from a pure source on more than one occasion as you know; your DNA has been altered so many times, four times to be more precise, that with each alteration, you grew stronger and more powerful, allowing you to surpass Vlad after only two years of experience verses his twenty two."

"Four times?" Jazz asked curiously. "Their powers were boosted four times?" she repeated her question.

"Danny received his powers the first time two years ago," Clockwork alliterated for them. "He received his second heavy dose of ecto-plasmic energy after a wish preformed by Desiree removed his powers," he informed them. "Danielle came along before Danny received the third dose, so she inherited his doubled dose automatically," he explained. "Therefore she has only had three power boosts, yet is still an equal to Danny."

This all seemed to be slowly sinking into the teen's heads, but they listened in silence as he continued.

"Danny received his third dose when he used the ghost portal to remove his powers," Clockwork continued. "His powers lay dormant until they were reawakened; when they were he had risen to a new level of strength. So by the time of the Dis-asteroid, on numerical levels, Danny was a level three while Danielle was still a level two."

"Wait, so Danny stabilizing me didn't have a power boosting affect?" Dani asked in confusion.

"No," Comet answered her. "It only did what it was supposed to do and that was to stabilize your ghost form, preventing it from melting down."

"You received your first power boost when you were electrocuted," Clockwork continued. "This is what also brought forth your enhanced powers," he reminded her. "You were already at level two, so that brought you up to level three, the same as Danny."

"By this point, your ability to learn and control new powers was already much faster than it was previously," Comet intervened. "Your powers continued to grow, and the rate of growth continued with your fourth heavy doses of ecto-plasmic energy infusions."

"Danny's fourth and more recent one was when he was hit with energy from within a sub-atomic particle accelerator in another dimension," Clockwork reminded him, turning on a light bulb in Danny's head. "Danielle's fourth was when she was blown up by a nuclear bomb she had turned intangible to save a town from destruction."

"Both occurred at roughly the exact same time, but that is beside the point," Comet spoke up. "It was this fourth power boosting effect that gave the two of you enough power to awaken the ability to enhance your strength on a whim and control it."

"The two of you can develop your powers nearly four times faster than you would normally," Clockwork continued. "It was thanks to this final development that the two of you were able to surpass and defeat Vlad. Had you not already been battle worn, you could have done so without hardly even lifting a finger," he concluded with a smirk.

"Well what about Vlad?" Danny asked. "He received his powers from a ghost portal as well. Shouldn't he have been given the same power boosting effect?" he asked curiously.

"Vlad received his powers from a proto portal, not a pure source," Comet retaliated verbally. "Unlike the two of you, his DNA wasn't infused with pure ecto-energy. You, Daniel, were inside the portal and so received a heavy dose of energy when the portal was activated."

"And Vlad?" Jazz asked before her younger siblings could.

"Long ago in the living world there was a man by the name of Vladimir," Comet began to recall. Danny rolled his eyes but the other three grew interested. "Long story short, he was a ruthless ruler before he lost his life. Upon entering the ghost zone he took on a vampiric appearance. He was also capable of transversing between the world of the living and the dead."

"You're talking about Dracula?" Dani asked with much interest.

"Intelligent, this one is," the Sandman speculated. "Not like the one she was cloned from."

"She takes after mom," Jazz spoke up. Everyone looked at her. "The girls in our family are smarter than the guys," she added.

"Yes, a common trait that dates back generations in many families, including the Fenton's," Clockwork confirmed.

"About three hundred years ago his killing sprees forced us to limit him within the ghost zone where he lived the rest of his days until the faithful day that your parents activated the proto-portal twenty-two years ago," Comet continued. "Dracula was unlucky enough to be in the exact location that the portal opened up into. When that happened; his soul, his physical form and all of his powers were transferred to the first person the resulting blast made contact with."

"Vlad," Danny growled.

"Ironic that two men of the same name would be brought together under such circumstances," Ron figured.

"Pure coincidence, believe me," Clockwork reassured them. "Had Vlad not had his face in the portal when it was activated, he would not have been fused with Dracula. Vlad's human body and Dracula's ghostly vampiric body became one, Vlad's mind remained dominant, but Dracula's mind heavily influenced his, hence why he became more and more devious and malevolent in his activities as time passed."

"Stealing money to build his wealth and popularity," Dani listed as his first devious act. "He then escalated to trying to exact revenge on dad and steal mom from him."

"Then he tried to turn me and failed," Danny added. "He claimed all he wanted was love; he was growing desperate. He started making clones of me resulting in Dani as his greatest failure," he added with a smirk as he punched the girl's shoulder.

"But that pushed him over the edge," Jazz continued. "You guys had thwarted his plans and he was out for revenge. He no longer seeked the same pleasures he once had. He set out to destroy Danny's reputation and eventually failed at that too."

"When he couldn't ruin Danny, he decided to play his next best hand and take Danny out of the equation all together," Comet continued for the teens. "When he finally succeeded, nothing stood between him and world domination other than an asteroid. That plan failed and sent him into hiding. He bid his time and waited for the right moment to make his way back into society. When he could, he put yet another plan into action."

"He nearly succeeded, but he never took into account our ever increasing powers," Danny continued when he realized where this was leading. "He continued the cloning process and even managed to take control of the planet."

"He just never expected us to develop our powers so quickly," Dani concluded.

"An over exposure to high levels of energy have increased your powers and abilities exponentially," Comet said. "Vlad wasn't exposed to such forces, so he was limited to what powers he inherited from Dracula."

"That would explain his physical appearance as a ghost," Ron figured. "And why he's never developed freezing powers or the ghostly wail. They can only be acquired through purer sources."

"Except he used genetics and gave himself the ability to perform a ghostly wail now too," Danny reminded him. "But we still possess powers that he doesn't; our freezing ability, the ability to increase our strength for short periods of time and now this fire ability."

"Which leads me to how you have come to develop it so rapidly," Comet continued with a grin. The four teens shifted in their seats because this was what they had come to find out about. "The way the powers of a ghost develop is only if they possess the ability and after they've witnessed it being preformed. Only your most difficult powers developed this way," he reminded Danny.

"Is that true Danny?" Dani asked curiously.

After a few moments Danny sighed and nodded. "Yes," he confirmed. "I learned how to perform most of my abilities after witnessing them being performed by others."

"In the order that you received them please Mr. Phantom," Comet requested as he folded his arms.

"Your energy attacks?" Jazz asked.

"Skulker and Walker's goons," Danny answered. "Also, Sidney Poindexter," he added when he remembered the goon had shot him with energy from his eyes when they first met.

"Duplication?" Ron asked.

"Vlad," Danny answered. "One of the powers he inherited I'm guessing?" Comet nodded.

"Ok, your ghostly wail?" Dani asked.

"I witnessed my evil future self using it," Danny responded. "The same thing with my ability to open my own ghost portals using only my energy," he added.

"And your freezing powers?" Jazz asked.

"Frostbite," Danny answered.

"Wrong," Clockwork interrupted making everyone look at him. "If you recall an annoying ghost by the name of Klemper?"

"Oh right," Danny recalled.

"The same was for me," Dani exclaimed. "I developed all the same powers after witnessing you or someone else performing them."

"So if your powers develop after you've witnessed them, then that must mean you've come across a ghost that could perform fire related techniques?" Jazz exclaimed.

"The lava people that dwell within a volcano deep within the ghost zone; I've already told you guys the story," Danny reminded the others. "But that was only a few months ago whereas my freezing powers took almost a year to develop."

"Your increase in power is to blame," Comet informed him. "The increase in power sped up the development of this new technique, taking only a few weeks instead of months or even years."

"But wait," Dani called out. "I never met them; so how am I developing these powers?" she asked, she was clearly confused.

"A link with Danny, you share," the Sandman informed the young girl. "A clone of his, you are. Share the same DNA, you do. Created after he began developing his powers, you were. Had to witness them to begin developing them yourself, you had to. Through the link, any new powers he witnesses, automatically transferred to you, they are."

"And the reverse is also possible," Clockwork added. "Should you witness a new power, he too will inherit the ability to learn and perform said ability."

"That explains how Danny learned how to enhance his strength," Jazz exclaimed. "It was only temporary when she first received the power, but the ability must have been transferred to Danny through the link!"

"That is correct Ms. Fenton," Comet confirmed. "After the power disappeared from Danielle, it became dormant in Danny until he reawakened it and learned to control it, at which point it transferred back to Dani. Hence why it appeared that you developed them at the same time. You inherited the ability from each other…if that makes sense."

"A little," Dani said as she squeezed two fingers together.

"So when I met the lava people and witnessed their fire powers," Danny began to conclude. "The dormant ability within me awakened and was transferred to Dani so we both started developing the same power at the exact same time."

"Precisely," Clockwork, Comet and the Sandman all nodded in agreement.

"We'll have to keep all of this in mind whenever we come across a ghost that uses powers we've never witnessed before," Jazz speculated.

"What about that stupid leprechaun we had to deal with the other day?" Ron asked. "He had a whole host of powers we've never seen before."

"Un-natural powers don't count," Comet replied. "The powers Doyle used were supplied to him through the use of his lucky charm bracelet."

"You mean like how you can't control reality without those gems?" Dani asked; pointing out the three gems inserted into the belt around his waist. Comet grinned and nodded.

"Now you understand how and why you've come to acquire these powers," Comet concluded. "As for what is causing it is a question best reserved for Frostbite." The teens looked at him in confusion before Clockwork coughed to catch their attention.

"There seems to be a slight problem," he informed them.

"What? With my explanation?" Comet asked. "Because you know as well as I do that I can't explain further without helping them to understand their powers," he exclaimed.

"That's not the kind of problem I'm talking about," Clockwork reassured him. "It would seem the life of one of your friends is hanging in the balance." This made everyone grow quiet and fearful. "The one named Kimberly Masters has run into a bit of a problem down in South America."

"What kind of a problem!" Ron asked worryingly.

"The kind that could kill her," Clockwork growled in retaliation.

"Clockwork," Comet growled. "You're crossing the line here," he warned.

"Remove you from power, the Observants will," the Sandman added in the same warning tone.

"I'm not crossing the line unless I use my powers to help them," Clockwork retaliated. "I'm simply warning them so they can prevent something terrible from happening on their own." He turned back to the teens who were all really scared for their friend's safety. "Once you leave here, we cannot interfere."

"Then I say we get going right now!" Ron shouted as he got off his feet and ran for the specter speeder. "If she's in danger and we're the only ones that can save her-"

"We can't just go rushing in there without knowing what we're up against," Jazz interrupted him. "Please Clockwork," she nearly pleaded. "You have to tell us what we're getting into."

Comet and the Sandman looked at Clockwork with concerned expressions, but he caved. He turned and opened a time portal that showed an unconscious Kim stuck to a wall in a dark room by a shiny substance that surrounded her entire body with the exception of her head which remained free.

"She and the rest of her archeological team uncovered the existence of an ancient race of a very dangerous creature thought to be long since extinct," Clockwork informed them. The image changed to show the large black armored scorpion-like creature with the long spine-like tail and the extended head. "I can't explain too much about them for obvious reasons, but these are extremely dangerous creatures that kill in self defense as well as for pleasure, but mostly for the survival of their species; the reason Kim is still alive for now because they plan to use her for their physical growth and development, at which point she will die."

"They use humans to breed?" Dani asked in shock. "Alright, we need to get going," she said as she got to her feet and crossed the room.

"Clockwork, how much time do we have left?" Danny asked as he and Jazz got to their feet.

"I can't say exactly," Clockwork answered. "But you don't have much time left," he warned.

"If we don't have much time then there is no way that we can get back to the portal and then half way around the world in a short period of time," Jazz said in a scared tone as she and Danny ran for the specter speeder where Ron and Dani were already waiting.

"You could get there now if you wanted to," Comet informed them as they prepared to step into the flying vehicle. The four of them looked back at him in confusion.

"I thought you weren't allowed to open portals for us to get there?" Danny asked in confusion.

"WE aren't allowed to open portals for you," Comet informed him. "No rule against YOU opening a portal for yourself," he said with a sinister grin.

"You do realize I have the hardest time trying to open my own portals between the dimensions?" Danny reminded the timeless ghosts. "Besides, you of all people know that the ghost zone is always in flux, even if I could make a portal I don't know where on Earth it'll open up."

"While in this room, that is not the case Danny," Clockwork said as he indicated the entire room they were in. "I can open a portal here to anywhere at any time I want. You can't open a time portal, but as long as you know where you want to go, you can open a portal to get there."

"That still leaves us with a problem though," Jazz commented. "Danny can barely open a portal larger than a mouse hole, let alone a portal that we can get the specter speeder through."

"Work together, Danny Phantom must," the Sandman snorted with laughter.

"Work together?" Danny asked before he looked back at his younger sister. "You know how to open portals too?" he asked her.

"No," she replied. "I've only ever seen you try to use it, but you were unsuccessful. I haven't seen it preformed correctly even once."

"Yes you have my child," Clockwork informed the child as he circled around the girl. "Think back or forward in time," he reminded her with a simple clue.

Dani thought for a moment before it hit her; a light bulb went off in her head. "I saw my future self use it in a different timeline!" she shouted with excitement.

"You have inherited all of your powers from Danny," Clockwork reminded her. "You too can open ghost portals, it has been a few months so the power has had plenty of time to awaken, you've just never tried."

Dani looked down at her hands and looked back and forth between them before Danny put his hand on her shoulder. "If we work together then maybe we can open a portal large enough for us to get through."

Dani smirked before Jazz interrupted their moment. "Make sure you open one large enough for the speeder to get through," she reminded them.

"What?" Danny asked them in shock. "You're not going you saw the image of what we're up against; it's too dangerous for you."

"No?" Jazz growled. "Kim is my best friend," she half yelled.

"She's my sister!" Ron growled angrily as he pointed his thumb into his chest.

"We're going and that's final!" they both yelled in unison as they got into the Phantom siblings faces.

Danny and Dani shot nervous glances at each other before their looks turned serious. They turned away from the college teens and infused their hands with energy. The three timeless ghosts looked on with confidence in the ghost teens.

"ARGH!" Danny and Dani shouted as they fired four beams of ecto-energy together; swirling them together a few feet away as the focal point flattened out and grew several feet across. The energy continued to swirl before it exploded with a massive amount of light, knocking Danny and Dani off their feet.

They looked up and saw the swirling green portal in front of them. "Hey! It worked!" Danny cheered as he looked at his hands as they let off a green mist.

"Alright, off your butts and through the portal before it closes," Jazz ushered them before she jumped into the speeder with Ron. "Kim needs our help now more than ever." Danny and Dani flew through the portal with Jazz and Ron in the Specter Speeder shortly behind them moments before the portal closed behind them.


	3. Part 2

Water trickled down a stalactite in what appeared to be a dark cavern, lit by the light glow of worms on the ceiling and the walls. The water dripped off the tip of the stalactite and splashed onto the top of a stalagmite directly below it. The drip echoed throughout the cavern as the view panned up from the stalagmite to reveal that the floor was covered with hundreds of large objects shaped like eggs with leathery textures. They looked like flower bulbs that hadn't opened just yet, although some had opened and they looked like four pedaled flowers.

Another drop of water dripped from the cavern's ceiling and splashed onto the floor, echoing throughout the darkness as the view panned across the floor to a wall where more than a dozen people are seen stuck to it. The substance that held them to the wall was dark and shiny and had a liquid appearance, but it didn't move.

More water echoed throughout the cavern and eventually made a certain girl stir in her sleep. Kim slowly opened her eyes as she adjusted them to the dark cavern. She groaned as she tried to move and found that she couldn't budge a muscle. "What the-?" she moaned before she looked down and saw that her entire body was covered in the slime-like substance which had hardened so it was acrylic in nature, trapping her against the wall.

She looked up and to her left and gasped to see Professor Wilson in the same condition; stuck to the cavern wall with the hardened acrylic substance. His stomach was still bleeding from his earlier injury and he had one of the smaller scorpion-like creatures on his face, its tail wrapped around his neck and its legs latching onto his face.

"Professor?" she asked in a whisper. "Are you alright?" He groaned in response, although it may have been an involuntary response. The strange creature tightened its tail's grip around the man's neck causing him to groan again. "I'll take that as a, 'for now'," she said with a shudder.

She looked to her other side and saw Robert stuck to the wall with the exact same substance. He didn't have a creature on his face but his face was lifeless; his skin was pale, his mouth hung open, his eyes were dilated, and his entire head drooped to one side. The most notable feature was his chest. Something had come out of his chest by bursting through his ribcage.

A look of terror spread across her face as she began to tremble. Her eyes welled up and she started to silently cry to herself as she turned away from her friend. Her nose stuffed up as she wept, tears rolled down her face and her eyes became bloodshot. It was while she was crying that she looked down to see one of the leathery eggs in front of her.

She sniffed and stopped crying long enough to figure out what it was. She looked to her right and noticed an egg that had hatched sat directly in front of Robert, and to her left in front of Professor Wilson was yet another egg that had already hatched. "What…are these things?" she asked herself in a whisper.

The un-hatched egg in front of her made a gurgling noise that caught her attention. Her eyes widened when she looked at the egg and it opened like a flower. She looked up and to her horror she saw more of them. The view zoomed away from her and crossed the cavern as it showed many other eggs hatching, opening like flowers.

"I have a very bad feeling about that," she whispered. The egg directly in front of her gurgled once more as several bony fingers emerged through the opening. She gasped before she struggled to break free from the hardened substance that had her stuck to the cavern wall. It creaked but didn't budge.

She gave up on trying to break free and started breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Her eyes remained wide and she didn't blink as the creature's bony fingers flexed and its tail flailed about wildly; the majority of its body was still in the egg. Kim clenched her teeth together and she tried to turn her head away, but her movement was limited to looking in the direction of the egg.

"YAAAAAAH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as the creature sprang out of the egg and lunged straight for the girl. She continued to scream as, from her point of view, the creature extended out all of its legs and covered her face and quieting her screams while ending the scene in a blackout.

* * *

A horde of bats flew in front of the moon as the sun set far off in the distance, making the horizon different shades of pink and orange. They squeaked as they flew through the air before the sudden appearance of a swirling green ghost portal made them scatter in random directions. Danny and Dani flew through and hovered in the air before turning to see the specter speeder come through before the portal disappeared.

The moon provided the only source of light before Jazz turned on the specter speeder's headlights. The glow from the moon mixed with the bright lights coming from the specter speeder was enough to light up the tops of the trees of the jungle below them.

"Well, we're here," Dani said as Jazz and Ron drove the speeder up next to them and raised the windshield so they could all speak to one another. They looked around and realized the temple Kim was at wasn't anywhere in sight. "But, we're still lost," she sighed with disappointment.

"Jazz, Kim told you where the dig site was before she left, didn't she?" Danny asked his older sister.

"The temple her intern team is at is along the western edge of the Amazon River," Jazz explained as Ron typed in commands into the dashboard.

Dani flew off a little ways and looked in the direction of the setting sun and saw the rays of light reflecting off the surface of the water from the Amazon River. "Well the good news is we're on the right side," Dani observed. "But is it north or south of here?" she asked.

A loud beeping noise began emitting from the speeder's dashboard; Danny and Dani flew up to the speeder as Jazz looked over Ron's shoulder to see what he was doing. "The homing beacon on her ghost hunting suit is active," he explained. "According to the tracking system, she's about two miles north of here."

Danny and Dani didn't hesitate before they took off over the speeder and flew north as fast as they could. Jazz and Ron had to act fast to turn the speeder around and followed the phantom siblings. The speeder was faster than them so they were able to catch up to the halfas rather easily. "So you got a plan Danny?" Jazz yelled over the rushing wind as the speeder came up next to them.

"This might be a situation where we have to go with the flow," Danny answered. "Clockwork didn't give us very much information, but if they're threatening Kim's life, then they've gotta be dangerous," he advised them.

"I haven't had this kind of rush in months," Dani said with a grin. "I kinda missed it a little," she admitted.

"I'm hoping it's nothing like this last summer," Danny admitted as he scowled. "We don't need another adventure like that anytime soon."

They flew for a few more seconds before the top of the ancient monuments at the dig site appeared above the trees, the moonlight glistening off the ancient stone and the vegetation covering it. "We're right above her," Ron said as he examined the navigation and tracking system in the speeder's dashboard. "This is definitely the right place."

They descended and landed in the clearing where the scattered remains of digging equipment lay scattered around on the ground and in large squares dug into the ground with lines of strings stretching across the edges. The speeder landed on the ground and opened up so Jazz and Ron could get out while Dani kicked a hard hat and while Danny examined the melted remains of Kim's glove and her suits hood.

"This place looks abandoned," he commented before he dropped it back onto the ground. "It's almost as if everybody has been chased off."

"Or captured like Kim," Jazz figured seeing as that was what they knew happened to Kim. "I hope she's alright," she added in concern.

"Where do you think they all went?" Dani asked, turning around to face the older teens.

Ron began to wander away from the group; he had gotten a flashlight out of the speeder and was making his way towards the dark doorway in the ancient temple. "Well, the reading we got earlier indicated she was underground," he reminded them. "This is the only place in the area that appears to head underground."

The four teens gathered around the entrance to the temple and shone the flashlight down the dark tunnel as it slopped downward, deeper and deeper underground, further than the light of the flashlight could reach. The four of them were so preoccupied with examining the inside of the tunnel; they failed to notice a dark figure slowly crawling towards them from the outside of the temple. It crawled down the edge of the temple towards them as it quietly growled, salivating as its tail swung back and forth behind it.

The four teens entered a few feet into the tunnel and examined the carvings into the rocks. "The creatures depicted in these carvings look like those things that Clockwork showed us," Jazz observed. She ran her hand over the carvings of one of the scorpion-like humanoid creatures attacking three tribe's men trying to defend themselves with spears. "These have to be over three thousand years old," she figured.

"No, older," Dani added. She and Danny had energized their hands so they glowed with green light to aid in their limited sight. She stood next to Ron as Danny made his way deeper into the tunnel. "Don't go getting too far ahead of us Danny," she advised him. "We need to stay as a group," she reminded him.

"She's right Danny," Jazz added. She was still standing just inside the entrance to the tunnel, examining the carvings. "We need to be able to assist each other should something happen to one of us." Just as she was saying this, the stabbing end of the creature's spine-like tail came down into the tunnel and before Jazz knew what hit her, it had wrapped itself around her waist, pinning her hands to her sides. "YAAAAH!" she screamed as she was pulled out of the tunnel.

"JAZZ!" Danny, Dani and Ron screamed in horror when they saw her being pulled from the tunnel. Ron and Dani ran out of the tunnel and looked up to see the culprit.

Jazz kept her eyes closed and turned away from the creature as it lifted her into the air. It sat on the stone above the entrance to the tunnel; it had access to grabbing the girl and her friends couldn't climb up to get to her. She finally opened her eyes and came face to face with the eyeless face of the creature.

"YAAAH!" she screamed again just as the creature began to bare its translucent teeth. It screeched and revealed the smaller head on the tip of its tongue.

Danny was rushing towards the entrance and stopped when he heard Jazz screaming and saw Dani and Ron looking up with terrified expressions on their faces. He thought for a moment before looking up towards the ceiling of the tunnel. He smirked before he went intangible and flew up through the stone.

Back above ground, the creature grabbed Jazz's head with one of its hands and turned her so she was facing it. She shivered fearfully as she was forced to stare the creature in the face. It hissed at her as it opened its mouth, the miniature head on the tip of its tongue ready to strike. Jazz prepared for the strike before there was a sudden interference.

The creature screeched as it was suddenly hit from beneath. Danny phased up through the stone, blasting the creature with an energized fist, sending it flying through the air. It let go of Jazz and she fell on top of Dani and Ron as Danny and the creature landed on the ground some distance away; Danny on his feet and the creature on its back.

It rolled over and jumped into its feet and faced its attacker. It screeched at Danny threateningly as he lit his hands with energy. "Dude you need a bit more meat on your bones," he mocked the creature concerning its skeleton-like shaped body. The creature screeched in retaliation before it raised its tail and lunged it towards the ghost kid. "WHOA!" Danny yelped as he jumped out of the way of the speeding tail.

The sharp knife-like tip of the tail punctured the ground and stuck long enough for Danny to grab a hold of it with his energized hands. The creature tried to pull itself free but was quite unsuccessful; Danny's grasp on its tail was too strong. Danny pulled the creature off its feet and swung it in circles.

"Round and round it goes; where it'll land, nobody knows," he mocked before he released the creature, sending it careening across the ground directly towards the other three where Dani was already ready to strike back.

"This is gunna be a slice!" Dani punned. She used the energy in her hands and used spectral manipulation to form an elongated sword made of ecto-energy, only her rising heat sensation had inadvertently fused it with green flames that made the sword appear to be on fire, although never really harming the girl that held it in her hands. She jumped into the air and charged the creature as it screeched. It tried to jab her with its tail but she easily maneuvered around it and used the sword to slice half of it off. Then she brought the sword back up and sliced diagonally through the creature's body and one of its arms.

The creature screeched in agony as it crashed into the ground in half a dozen pieces as it bled acid all over the ground. It squirmed around as the acid fizzled large holes into the ground beneath it. Danny and Dani approached the creature as it tried to swipe at them with its remaining hand but fell over and collapsed into a motionless heap.

As they examined the remains of the creature, the flaming ecto-plasmic sword in Dani's hand began to fizzle. They looked down at the sword as she raised it so they could see the blade; it was covered in the same acidic blood that was eating away at the ground. Their eyes widened when the ghostly energy and the flames began fusing with the acid, turning them orange in color.

"What the-!" Dani yelled as the ecto-plasmic sword began to shake in her hands. Danny didn't hesitate in waiting to see what was going to happen. He kicked the sword out Dani's hands, sending it flying high into the air before it exploded in a ball of orange flames.

Jazz and Ron walked up from the other side of the dead creature as they all kneeled down to examine the creature's remains, particularly the acidic blood that was eating away at the ground. "Its blood is acidic and highly corrosive, and becomes explosive when mixed with ecto-energy," Jazz figured after having observed the events.

"Great defensive mechanism," Ron figured. "Makes its enemies not want to kill it, otherwise, they might end up dead themselves."

"And these tails make for great stabbing weapons," Dani suggested as she held up the blade-like appendage, being careful not to touch any of the acid still dripping from the bottom of it. "And the length of it enables it to grab larger objects."

This made Jazz shiver and everyone noticed. "This thing was guarding the tunnel entrance," she informed them. "Chances are there are more inside. I want to help Kim, but after what just happened, I think I'd just be in the way down there."

"I hear you there," Ron added. "Danny and Danielle are more than capable of saving Kim; it should be a piece of cake for them."

"Ok, you guys stay here and guard the ship incase anymore of those things show up," Danny advised them. "There should be some weaponry in the speeder, use those and you should be safe long enough for us to come back."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dani said with a grin before the scene blacked out and came back with Danny and Dani making their way deeper into the underground tunnel system, using the light of their ecto-energy coming from their hands to light the way. "This place is giving me the creeps," she whispered to him, although her voice echoed much louder.

"Don't get your panties in a bundle," Danny said calmly to which she scowled and wrinkled her nose at him as they came to a secondary tunnel that branched off from the main. "Another tunnel?" he asked as they aimed their hands down it to light it up.

"Think we should go down it?" Dani asked curiously.

"What does your gut tell you?" he asked her to answer her question.

After a moment of thinking it over she finally answered. "That we should continue down the main tunnel," she theorized.

"Same thought here," Danny agreed. He turned away from the tunnel and walked on, leaving Dani to look down the darkened tunnel as she dwelled in her thoughts. She turned and followed after her namesake, leaving the dark tunnel behind as the eyeless face of one of the creatures came into view and silently hissed.

One tunnel after another, the Phantom siblings stopped temporarily at each to look down them briefly before continuing onwards. They eventually reached the skeletal remains of an ancient tribesman at the entrance to yet another side tunnel. Dani went to examine it as Danny continued on into a dark chamber a little ways ahead. "Whoever this guy was, he wasn't with Kim," she figured based on the desiccated remains. "He's been dead for nearly as long as this temple is old."

She looked up and realized Danny was no longer within sight, but the ecto-plasmic glow from his hand could be seen from within the room. She stood and walked towards the room just as a black skeletal hand appeared from the darkness and grabbed for her but she had moved out of reach.

"What have you found here bro?" she asked as she came up to his side in the chamber. She looked up at the stone doorway that loomed over them and gasped. "This thing looks just like a deactivated ghost portal," she said with amazement.

So they could get a better view of the stone structure before them, they used their energy to relight the torches that hung on the walls around the room. With the chamber now lit with enough light to see, they could get a better glimpse of what they were looking at.

"I think it is," Danny said, agreeing with Dani's last statement as he entered the large hole in the stone wall. He walked to the back and placed his hand on a green circular stone embedded into rock. It was at this exact moment that he received a heavy shock from the green stone. "OUCH!" he yelped as he retracted his hand and held it with his other hand as it let of a green smoke. "This is an ancient ghost portal; powered by a stone made of ecto-ranium," he confirmed. "These people had access to the ghost zone long before modern day people did," he said more to himself.

"Amazing that such ancient people would have discovered this kind of technology," Dani said with amazement as her gaze moved up until she was looking at the top of the stone doorway that made up the outer rim of the portal. She slowly backed up so as to get a better view of the entire portal. She stopped when she sensed something behind her. "Huh?" she asked before she closed her eyes and listened intently.

From out of the darkness behind her silently appeared the eyeless face of the alien creature that had been following them. It barred its teeth and snarled in a low growl. Its tail quivered as it prepared to lunge the razor sharp dagger-like tip at her. The sound it made as it moved was like a sword cutting through air. Without warning, it lunged its tail for the girl.

"Danny!" she called out as she opened her eyes and jumped into the air, just avoiding being impaled through the back by the razor sharp tail. "Look out!" she warned to him as the creature's tail continued into the hole of the portal.

"Huh?" Danny questioned as he glanced back at her only to find the creatures tail coming straight for him. "WHOA!" he yelped as he suddenly went intangible and phased through the rock to avoid being impaled by the dagger-like appendage. He phased back out of the rock next to the portal just as the creature removed its tail from the stone, breaking off rocks that scattered across the ground in the process.

It screeched at him as he came down and smashed into the back of its head, knocking it to the ground before he jumped off and back flipped through the air, landing on his feet. He got into a defensive stance and motioned with his hands to challenge it into attacking as a cocky grin spread across his face.

The creature screeched again, snapping its tongue at him. It got down on all fours and leapt into the air to attack him but froze in mid strike not more than a foot from Danny. He crossed his arms and smirked as he looked over its shoulder. It fell to the ground, landing firmly on its feet before it turned its head and hissed at whatever had halted its attack.

Dani had a firm hold of its tail, being sure to keep the serrated tip away from her. "Going up," she said jokingly before she turned on her feet and twisted her waist before pulling on the creature's tail, uprooting it from the ground. "And going down," she added with a sinister grin before she brought the creature up and over her head before she tossed it to the ground.

It slid across the ground and crashed into the wall, knocking loose dust and small rocks. It shook its head to clear its thoughts before it got to its feet and screeched at them, barring its teeth and tongue once more.

"These things are jokes," Danny scoffed as Dani folded her arms and nodded in agreement. "And Clockwork had us worried," he said with a grin as he and Dani exchanged confident smirks.

The creature hissed once more before it spat a yellow liquid from its mouth at them. "Whoa!" Dani yelped as she jumped to the side, but it didn't touch her luckily. Danny wasn't as unfortunate. He put out his hands to block the liquid, but it hit his hands and began to corrode away his gloves.

"OUCH!" Danny screamed in pain as he ripped his gloves off and tossed them to the ground where they continued to dissolve away. "That really hurt!" he complained as he looked at the palms of his hands and discovered that they had been slightly burned. "You're gunna pay for that!" he threatened the creature as his eyes began to glow with a green fury burning within.

The creature hissed and spat yet another glob of acid at him, to which he retaliated by firing an energy beam at it. The energy and the acid collided, effectively canceling each other out…but no explosion this time. The energy and the acid just disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

"Where was the bang?" Danny asked in shock. "Their acidic blood it supposed to be explosive!"

"Not when mixed with ecto-energy," Dani spoke up. Danny looked at her and she had the same shocked expression as him. "We had it wrong, it doesn't become explosive when mixed with ecto-energy," she warned. "It caused my sword to explode earlier because it was exposed to the flames that were infused into the blade. Fire makes it explode, just like gasoline or gunpowder," she concluded.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Danny half yelled in frustration before he and Dani were forced to jump backwards as the creature struck at them with its tail. Its tail imbedded itself into the ground where they stood as they slid across the ground on their feet before coming to complete stops several feet back. "We can't control that power yet," he reminded her. "I can make small flames in my hands but that's nowhere near enough to be of any help."

The creature pulled its tail free from the ground; retracting it and swinging it around in the air behind it before it got on all fours and charged them.

"Well then, I guess we beat it the old fashion way," Dani suggested in a serious tone. "We did it before, we can do it again," she said with a scowl before she charged the creature and managed to knee it in the bottom of its mouth. It recoiled back but didn't have time to recover before she backhanded it with an energized fist with enough force to send it crashing into the wall next to the stone portal.

As it tried to recover Danny flew up to its side and punched it in the side of its head as hard as he could, smashing it against the wall. It countered by knocking him away with its tail, sending him crashing into the stone wall next to the entrance of the chamber.

With Danny temporarily out of commission, Dani fought the creature first punching it as hard in the chest as she could, but its armored plating protected it from the blow. "Oww!" she yelped as she massaged her hand. "This thing's skin is as hard as steel." She looked up and managed to grab a hold of one of the creature's arms as it swiped its hand at her. She pushed its arm aside so she had another clear shot at its head. She used a stretch kick, kicking the creature in the head as she brought her foot up and over her own head.

The blow from her kick forced the creature to stumble back into the portal. It backed into the inner wall before it snarled at the girl as she floated in the entrance to the portal as she formed a pulsating energy ball in her hands. She perked up as Danny came to her side with a pulsating energy ball in his hands as well.

They glanced at each other, smirked and nodded in understanding and agreement before they focused on the creature and scowled. It screeched at them and leapt through the air at them with its mouth wide open. "ARGH!" Danny and Dani yelled as they fired twin energy beams that fused into one before it went down the creature's throat.

The creature appeared to swallow the energy before it barred its teeth and continued charging them. A look of panic and fear spread across their faces and they closed their eyes, clenched their teeth and crossed their arms in front of their faces and upper torsos to prevent injury. The creature hissed one more time as it jumped through the air to attack them.

Mere seconds from getting to them, the energy they shot down its throat finally exploded. The creature disappeared in a flash of light so intense it shot Danny and Dani out of the chamber and into the tunnel that led up to it. They crashed into the ground near the skeletal remains of a man and looked up to see bright light coming from the chamber. A rumbling sound ensued and they were forced to cover their ears and close their eyes tightly as the entire chamber exploded, surrounding them in dust and debris until they disappeared from sight.

* * *

Back on the surface, Ron and Jazz were digging through a weapons box they had pulled from the Specter Speeder. They had lay an assortment of ecto-blasters, ecto-grenades, Fenton Peelers, Fenton Thermoses and a pair of Jack O' nine tails on the ground.

"These creatures aren't ghosts," Ron speculated as he held up a Fenton Thermos. "Our weapons might have some effect in ways of defending ourselves, but we can't trap these things in soup thermoses," he scolded Jazz as he pointed at the containment device.

Jazz swiped it from him. "Better safe than sorry," she grumbled before the ground began to shake, unbeknownst to them, the resulting explosion Danny and Dani had just created. "What are those two trying to do?" she asked angrily. "Alert the whole jungle that we're here!" she added.

As she vented, Ron tried desperately to keep his balance on the still shaking ground before he fell onto his hind-quarters, banging his head into the side of the Specter Speeder and accidentally shooting off an energy blast up towards the sky from the ecto-pistol he was holding. "I'm alright," he reassured her after she jumped from hearing the shot go off.

The ground stopped shaking and all was silent until it was broken by something landing on the ground next to Ron. He immediately jumped to his feet as he and Jazz aimed their weapons at the sudden intruder. It had been yet another creature that had the front of its face blasted off when Ron shot off his weapon. It had been on top of the Specter Speeder stalking them before it was hit with the energy ray, killing it instantly.

They aimed their flashlights up towards the top of the flying vehicle where the creature had fallen from and found nothing. They aimed their lights back down to the dead creature as acidic blood leaked out of its mortal wound, dissolving the ground with a loud sizzle. They aimed their lights up again when they heard low growling. Standing in the darkness of the night, no more than three yards from them, were two more of the creatures alive and well. They both screeched, revealing that one of them had had its miniature head-like tongue cut out. It had already seen action and was previously wounded.

"Run?" Ron asked with a fear in his eyes.

"Run," Jazz confirmed, the same fear having filled her eyes as well.

They turned to make quick getaways, but the creatures were faster. They lunged their tails out, blocking the teens escape, plunging the serrated tips of their tails into the metallic frame of the speeder. The creatures showed their incredible strength by using only their tails to lift the vehicle together and tossed it into the air, sending it crashing into the egg shaped carving at the top of the nearby temple.

The egg wobbled on its perch while the speeder began to roll down the aged and vegetation covered stone, crumpling metal and shattering glass as gravity pulled it back down to Earth.

After having thrown the vehicle, the creatures screeched at the teens, barring their teeth and preparing their tails to strike again. They attacked the teens with their tails; luckily they were able to roll out of the way, avoiding being impaled. Jazz landed on her feet and pulled out an activated Jack O' Nine tails. The ball on the end spun on its short leash before she swung the device, sending out a series of small metallic claws that latched themselves onto the tail of the nearest creature.

It screeched before turning around to see what had caught it while the other creature proceeded to attack Ron. It barred and snarled at the girl as she pulled the line taut with one hand. With her other hand she grabbed for a Fenton Peeler she had attached to her side and activated it, encasing herself in shiny gray armor, minus the helmet, that provided some protection as well as enhancing her strength ever so slightly.

The creature screeched again as it wriggled its tail, tugging against the restraints in an attempt to free itself. It would have succeeded had Jazz not had a firm grip on the device's handle. With the line still pulled taut, she used the power of the Fenton Peeler suit to swing the creature around in a half circle before she pressed a button, releasing the creature and sending it careening towards the ancient temple.

It smashed into the stone, cracking rock and breaking loose pebbles. It screeched as it got back to its feet, showing off its deadly tongue in the process. It prepared to charge her but the sound of metal hitting stone caught its attention. It turned and looked up as the Specter Speeder rolled down the side of the temple straight towards it. It screeched again as, from a distance, it put its arms and its tail up just as the speeder crashed to the ground on top of it, supposedly crushing it.

Rocks and vegetation had been disturbed, dust, dirt and other debris settled until nothing but the speeder remained with the tip of the creature's tail stuck out from underneath with a puddle of acid eating away at the hull of the upturned speeder and the ground where it now sat.

Meanwhile, the other creature was attacking Ron with brute force. It repeatedly stabbed at him with its tail as he rolled and jumped to avoid being impaled. Once he had a free moment he rolled over to where a number of weapons had been scattered and grabbed up a blaster that he quickly aimed and fired. The resulting energy beam hit the creature directly in the chest.

It stumbled back a few steps but was relatively unscathed. It screeched and lunged for him as he picked up another weapon, another Fenton Peeler, and fired. This energy blast was a bit more effective, it hit the creature and it fell to the ground. While it got to its feet, he activated the metallic armor, minus the helmet, just as the creature lunged for him again.

With the strength provided from the suit, he grabbed the creature's arms and managed to hold it at bay. It hissed at him with its mouth open wide, its tongue long since missing due to a past battle. This in turn prevented it from attacking the teen who was more than close enough for its tongue to reach, had it actually had one.

Out of options, the creature used its tail as its current last resort. It slashed at the young man, only for him to let it go and duck just as the creature's tail swung over his head. He rolled out of the way as the creature swiped at him with one of its hands. It screeched at him as he rolled out of reach before it heard the other creature screech.

It turned from him and watched as the other was suddenly crushed underneath the falling specter speeder with a suited Jazz trying to regain her composure after defeating the creature. She was slumped over, leaning on her knees to catch her breath before she looked over her shoulder to see the creature looking in her direction. She yelped and jumped back up into a full standing position as she turned around to face her new attacker.

The creature screeched ferociously before it abandoned its original target, Ron, and went after her, running at full speed with its mouth hung open to show off its teeth. Ron took this time to pick up a more powerful weapon that lay nearby. As the creature drew closer to Jazz, she prepared to use the Jack O' Nine tails, but a sudden explosion knocked her and the creature off their feet.

Jazz fell to the ground and looked up to see Ron aiming an ecto-bazooka in her general direction, it was still smoking, revealing that it had just been fired. It was this explosion that caused the now unsteady egg shaped rock at the top of the temple to fall and begin rolling down the side of the ruins.

Jazz and Ron looked over at the creature as it slid across the ground. It stuck its tail into the ground and used it to stop and turn onto its feet so that it was facing the teens. It screeched at them, barring its teeth before a rumbling sound made it look up. The egg shaped boulder bounced off the entrance to the underground tunnel and crashed into the ground before it continued rolling along the ground. The creature didn't have time to react before it was crushed under the massive weight of the boulder.

Its body nearly exploded on impact, the rock continued rolling out of the dig site and eventually sunk into the nearby Amazon River. A large hole began to dissolve away where the creature's blood had been sprayed onto the ground after it was crushed by the boulder. The teens had won this fight. They walked up to the edge of the large hole which by now was nearly half a foot deep by ten feet across.

"Well…that wasn't so hard," Ron said sarcastically as Jazz gave him a curious smirk. Unfortunately their troubles weren't over just yet. They looked up as the sound of crunching metal caught their attention. They turned towards the temple just in time to spot the smashed remains of the speeder coming straight towards them. "Look out!" he yelled as he grabbed Jazz and pulled her to the ground.

The speeder, which was airborne, flew right over them before crashing into the ground on the other side of the hole and rolled into a tree before finally settling on the ground as smoke began pouring from the engine. The teens looked up from the ground as the first creature Jazz thought she had defeated strolled towards them. It had survived being crushed and had thrown the entire vehicle at them, although it wasn't unharmed.

It bled acid from the top of its head as it leaked and dripped onto the ground as it walked. It was also bleeding from its chest and its tail along many of the junctions that made it look like the vertebrae of a spinal cord. It walked with a slight limp in its right leg and its left arm was twisted backwards at the elbow.

Jazz and Ron stumbled to their feet. "Is that thing still living!" Jazz asked horrorstruck.

The creature screeched at them before it began to charge.

"I don't know," Ron responded with a growl. "But we've got plenty of fight left!" he declared as he held up the Fenton Peeler blaster and fired.

The creature lowered its head and managed to deflect the blast away as it continued its charge. It opened its mouth wide and spat acid the distance between them, covering Jazz's entire torso with the corrosive liquid.

"YAH!" she screamed as she fell to the ground and pulled at the armor to get it off as it ate away at the metal.

"JAZZ!" Ron shouted in horror before he turned to face the creature as it charged up behind him. With a mighty swing of his arm, he hit the creature in the side of the head, batting it away before he made a fist and landed an uppercut on the creature's lower jaw, making it stumble back on its feet before it fell over backwards.

This short break gave Ron enough time to dive for Jazz's aid as she struggled with her quickly dissolving armor. He used the strength given by his suit and grabbed her suits chest plate and ripped it away from the rest of the suit, leaving her body exposed but her limbs protected.

He grabbed the still dissolving chest plate and swung it, hitting the creature in the head with a loud CLANG as it got back to its feet. He tossed it to the ground before the acid had a chance to spread to his hands and grabbed for the creature's tail as it was swung at him. He caught it and struggled to keep it steady as the creature screeched and wriggled to get back to its feet.

"JAZZ!" he shouted to her as she got to her hands and knees. "Grab it and stop it from moving!" he ordered her.

She did as she was told and crawled to the creature's side and pushed down on its shoulder with one hand and its head with the other, further restraining it. With two hands on the creature's tail, Ron pulled them apart, separating the serrated tip from the rest of the tail. Acid squirted all over, including onto his armor, but he paid it no attention at the moment.

He held the blade-like appendage over his head and drove it down into the creature's already wounded chest before the still flailing tail knocked him off his feet and causing him to tumble onto Jazz, forcing her to let go of the creature as they rolled away out of fear that it would strike at them after being freed.

Away from the monster, Ron tore off the pieces of his armor that were dissolving away before they could affect him. These included most of the armor of his upper body and one of his legs. He tossed them aside as Jazz strolled up to the now dead creature after it had been impaled by one of its own bodily weapons.

"Now it's over," Jazz sighed with relief as she fell to the ground in exhaustion and looked up towards the night sky as the stars twinkled brilliantly.

"At least until more of those things show up," Ron hesitated to say. Jazz looked up at him with a worried look as he looked over what was left of his plated armor. "We've taken heavy damage and probably won't stand much of a chance against another one of those things," he implied.

Jazz sat up and looked down at herself; she too was now missing the most vital part of her protective armor and was now vulnerable to attack. "The speeder is ruined, our suits are trashed and most of our weapons are low on power or damaged beyond repair," she sighed with grief. "Let's hope the other two are having luck with finding Kim," she said as they looked towards the dark entrance to the temples underground labyrinth of tunnels.

* * *

Back underground, the darkened tunnel was lit with a soft green glow that fought to penetrate through a thick wall of dust and debris that filled the tunnel from roof to floor. Dani finally managed to step through the dust with her hand aglow with energy. "Danny?" she called out through the thick dust. The explosion from earlier had torn her ghostly suit's left sleeve and glove right off halfway up her upper arm. Her collar was torn and the bottom of her shirt was ragged. Her face was dirty and her hair was singed slightly.

She jumped back slightly as Danny stood up from the ground beside her. He was in the same condition as her, his shirt was torn and he was bleeding a little from cuts at his sides and from his cheeks. He was missing both of his gloves now and his hair was also singed. He rubbed the back of his neck as he stretched his back.

"Been awhile since we've seen this kind of action," he chuckled as he took in the condition of their suits. "Guess we're in this one for the long haul again," he figured in a more serious tone.

"We need to clear away some of this dust," Dani said as she raised her hand and released the energy, sending it through the thick wall of dust before it is heard exploding. Moments later, a rush of wind from the explosion, pushed away the wall of dirt to reveal that the chamber with the ancient ghost portal was now blocked by a wall of fallen stone. The room had likely been destroyed. "Guess we're not going back in there," she sighed as she lowered her arm back down, but still kept her hand glowing so they could see.

"Guess we take route number two then," Danny figured as he and Dani turned and aimed their glowing hands down the tunnel that stretched out before them. "No doubt in my mind that the explosion woke up the rest of our friends."

"They'll be coming for us and the other two soon," Dani realized. "We need to stop with the detours, find Kim and get out butts out of here," she suggested, seeing as that was the original plan to begin with.

Danny nodded silently in agreement before they slowly began to make their way down the secondary tunnel, which had now become the primary now that the chamber behind them had been blocked. They didn't know what they were going to find down this tunnel. They could run into more of those creatures or they could run into something they weren't expecting.

They kept their eyes open their and hands up to prevent a creature from jumping out of the darkness and surprising them, but they weren't paying attention to the ground. As they walked down the tunnel, Danny stepped down and felt the floor move. He jumped back and they both watched as a square stone block about a foot across sank into the ground.

"I knew it," Dani growled. "This place is rigged with booby traps," she realized. "Figures in a temple this old," she huffed. "These people were pretty crafty Danny," she advised him as he continued past the stone he stepped on. "They had access to a ghost portal, who knew what kind of things they've set up to protect the rest of the temple."

"Dani, these people are also old fashioned," he said, giving her a smirk. He raised his hand and fired a weak energy blast at the ground a few yards ahead to reveal a net with a thin layer of dirt covering it. It was blown away to reveal a pitfall with a series of sharp spikes at the bottom. A rather simple booby trap. "I don't think we're going to find anything other than a few pits in here," he scoffed before he stepped on another stone that depressed into the ground.

Suddenly hundreds of holes opened in the walls before sharpened spikes protruded from them, shocking them both. "You care to rephrase that statement?" Dani said nervously before the walls suddenly began to move, coming closer together, making the fit through the tunnel thinner and thinner.

"Time to go!" Danny shouted before he jumped into the air and flew down the tunnel with Dani directly behind him.

By now the edges of the walls had moved close enough to the point where their flight path was impeded and they had to avoid the spikes to avoid being impaled. The end was coming up but there was no way they'd make it in time.

From the end of the booby trap, the walls came together with a loud BANG, smashing anything that was still inside. Unfortunately, the Phantom siblings were smarter than that. They had become intangible and phased the rest of the way through the stone unharmed.

"These ancient people ain't got nothing on us!" Danny said triumphantly as he and his cloned sister smacked hands before they continued their journey down the tunnel.

They didn't come across any more booby traps, but the shape of the tunnel walls told them they were getting closer to their destination. Instead of stone, the walls were now covered in some sort of hardened acrylic that oozed with the same slime excreted by the alien creature's mouths.

"This place is really nasty," Dani groaned in disgust before she felt herself kick something. She looked down and bent over to pick up a flashlight that had long since gone dead. She picked it up but it was covered in even more of the slime. "EWW!" she yelped as she dropped the flashlight and jumped back upright.

"Dani," Danny called out to her as she tried to shake away the slime that stuck to her glove. She looked up as Danny cautiously looked around the corner of another tunnel. She slunk up to the other side of the tunnel and peered around the corner at what Danny was looking at.

It was another chamber, this one much larger than the last, and standing some distance inside were two more of the creatures. They were just standing around doing nothing as they appeared to stare each other down despite not having any eyes. Sitting around them were many large leathery objects that looked like opened flower bulbs.

"I think the two of them are guarding something," Danny suspected as he whispered his thoughts to Dani. "That's why they've failed to notice our presence."

"And if they do know we're here, then they must be protecting something valuable," she added her own thought. "And it's up to us to find out what," she said with a sinister smirk to which Danny returned before they became invisible and disappeared from sight.

The two creatures stood in their guard positions, unaware of the Phantom Siblings sneak attack. Danny and Dani appeared floating in the air above them and before they knew what happened, the Phantom siblings had landed hard kicks to the backs of their heads, knocking them into each other and knocking them out cold.

"Morons," Danny said as he knelt by their sides and nudged one of them to make sure it was really out cold before he turned his back on them.

While he did this, Dani walked around and looked down into one of the large flower bulb-like objects. "These things are hollow," she observed as she stuck her face into one of them before she pulled back with a look of disgust. "Phew, and it really stinks too," she coughed as she wafted the foul air away from her face.

"What do you think came out of these things?" Danny asked as he looked down into one before he noticed another that hadn't opened just yet. "Hey, over here," he gestured Dani to come over. "This one hasn't opened yet," he said as she walked up to the other side of the object. He put his hand on the side and felt something move. "There's something inside," he said with shock.

Suddenly the top opened like a flower bulb making the two of them jump back in surprise. Something moved before a scorpion-like creature jumped out of the object straight towards Danny. "WHOA!" he yelled before he shot an energy blast at it, killing it on impact. It fell to the ground at his feet as it let off a green smoke from the attack that killed it.

"These things are eggs," Dani realized after she knelt by the scorpion-like creature. "No idea what these things are though," she admitted as she poked the still creature. "What do you think Danny?" she asked him, but he didn't respond. "Danny?" she asked, looking up at him.

He was still standing over her, but a look of terror had spread across his face. He walked past her and approached the wall. Whatever had caught his attention was blocked from Dani's view by him. She stood from her crouching position and came up to his side.

"What's up?" she asked as she stopped next to him. That's when she saw it. A person, a young man, possibly into his early to mid twenties was stuck to the wall with the same hardened acrylic substance that the walls themselves were now made of. That wasn't the disturbing part though. His mouth hung open and his eyes were open, though they were lifeless. His chest was what filled their souls with fear. His chest had been ripped open, his rib cage opened and torn apart from within, almost as if something had burst out of his chest. All of his internal organs were gone, leaving behind an empty, lifeless corpse.

Tears filled Dani's horror filled eyes. She had never seen anything this tragic before, this was way beyond anything someone her age could comprehend. She turned and threw up into one of the empty egg casings before she managed to regain herself, although she continued to weep silently.

"What are these things?" she whispered. She looked up at her brother who seemed just as traumatized but he refused to show it, possibly thinking that if he started to lose it now they might not be able to continue. "What kind of creature does this to people!" she shouted as more tears began to stream from her eyes. "What if this is what happened to Kim?" she whimpered.

This last question broke Danny's silence. "Don't think like that!" he shouted at her angrily, making her jump in shock. "I'm just as scared for her as you are, but if you lose yourself now then there might not be any help for her," he scolded her. "Keep your head on your shoulders. She's alive in here, I can feel it."

They looked up when they heard movement. They growled angrily as the two creatures they knocked out a few minutes before were waking up and seemed dazed. They shook themselves awake before they realized they had company. They screeched at the two Phantoms before they charged.

"These guys are mine," Danny snarled before he flew over a still distraught Dani and kicked one of the creatures in the head, sending it crashing into the ground, knocking over a few hatched eggs in the process. He turned his focus on the second creature as it swung its tail at him. He caught it and swung the creature against the floor.

The creature he had attacked first was back in action and tried to jump him from behind, but he was prepared. With a firm grip on the other creature's tail he used the knife-like blade at the end and stabbed it into the creature's head before he tossed it to the ground dead. He then swung the second one and released it, sending it sliding across the floor, knocking more eggs over.

It got back up and screeched at him as he flew towards it with an energized fist, green flames appeared to be licking off as his fire powers began to surface once again. He tackled the creature to the floor just as a trap door opened up beneath them right where the creatures had been standing guard just minutes before. It was this trap door that they had been protecting.

"DANNY!" Dani called out to him as he and the creature fell into the depths of the trap. She ran up to the edge of the trap door just as it closed, preventing her from going in after him. They had been separated; Danny was left to face that thing on his own. She knelt by the edge of the trap door and sniffled before she raised her head. "He's right, I can't lose myself now," she reassured herself. By now her eyes were bloodshot from crying. "If I can't hold myself together then I won't be able to save Kim if she is still alive."

She stood and wiped away her tears before she went back to the wall where the deceased archeology student was still trapped to the wall. She managed to hold herself together this time as she took in the graphic sight before her.

"I'm sorry, we couldn't save you in time," she apologized to the dead. "But I can still pray that hope for my friend remains," she said before a blackout moved onto the next scene.

* * *

An ecto-blast whizzed by as Danny and the monstrous creature plummeted down the dark shaft after falling through the trap door. The creature screeched as Danny pummeled it with ferocity. It never bothered to try to attack Danny; it never tried to defend itself. It was using its arms, legs and tail to try to grab onto the edges of the shaft to slow down its fall. Sparks flew as its tail and nails scraped against the stone.

Danny held onto the creature by one of the cylindrical spikes that protruded from its back. "Hope you like heart burn!" he snarled as he raised one hand over his shoulder and gathered energy that wafted like flames in the updraft caused by them falling. He formed his hand into a fist before bringing it down and punching right through the creature's hardened armor before releasing his attack within it.

The creature screeched again as green light began emitting from its mouth and the cylindrical spikes on its back, revealing that they must have been hollow. It desperately clawed at the shaft before finally grabbing hold of a tiny ledge that jutted out. It came to a sudden stop, but Danny lost his grip and continued to fall. The creature screeched in agony as its armor-like skin began to crack and emit green light from the developing cracks.

The creature screeched one last finally time before it exploded in a massive explosion from Danny's flame attack causing its acidic blood to combust. The flames shot down the shaft and engulfed Danny just as he reached the bottom. It curved forward and Danny was shot out like a bullet. He rolled across the ground as flames roared out of the shaft before dissipating.

Danny lay motionless on the ground, his hair further singed and his suit burnt and torn. Before long, one of his fingers twitched, then his hand, and then his arm, and before long he was pushing himself off the ground. "Ugh," he moaned before he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "That was unreal," he groaned as he looked up from the ground.

He heard a squishing noise and looked off to his side to see a large cream colored opaque appendage squeeze one of the eggs out and onto the ground, leaving behind slime that oozed down the side of the leathery casing. A look of disgust spread across his face as he got to his feet. He followed the large sack which appeared to be an ovipositor, like that of a termite queen. The large sack moved and contorted as if it were a living creature, and that assumption wasn't far off.

If the egg laying appendage was the back, then Danny must have been coming to the front. He looked up and discovered what appeared to be a lattice of struts resembling massive insect legs. As he round to the front he discovered another one of the monstrous creatures, this one much larger than the others. It sat on the struts as if they were some sort of throne. The creature's head was also shaped differently, a large flat crest stuck out like a large shield to protect its head. Unlike the other creatures, this larger one had a smaller pair of inner arms that protruded from the sides of its chest.

Upon noticing his presence, the creature lifted its head and looked in his direction before its lips parted to reveal a series of razor sharp, silver streamed teeth. It hissed at him before it opened its mouth and extended out its tongue which, like the others, had a smaller mouth with teeth on the end. Danny jumped back when it snapped at him, but he was far out of its range to reach him.

"No wonder your two drones were guarding that trap door so cautiously," he figured. "Those are your eggs?" he inadvertently asked the creature as its tongue retracted. "You're gunna need better hired hands," he mocked, with a sinister grin. "I've gotta admit, you've got one heck of a crazy life cycle; too bad all life cycles eventually come to an end," he snarled as his eyes half closed. The creature screeched loudly as its roar echoed throughout the series of underground tunnels.

* * *

With hand aglow with energy so she could see, Dani slowly made her way around the chamber as she examined each and every single person she came too. The walls of the chamber were lined with more people stuck to the walls, all of them in the same condition; dead after something burst through their rib cages to get out.

She didn't dwell and didn't want to see anymore of the gruesome tragedies than she had too. She went from person to person until she came to an old man. "This guy's definitely not one of the students," Dani figured based on the fact that his age was much more than the others. "Wait a minute," she said curiously as she took a closer look at him. His stomach was bleeding, he had been severely stabbed, more than likely by one of the creatures, but his chest wasn't burst open from within.

She quickly rushed him and felt for a pulse on his neck. When he began to stir suddenly, she jumped back in surprise. "Ugh," he groaned.

"Oh thank god he's alive," she sighed with relief. She grabbed for the hardened acrylic that had bound him to the wall but to no affect. "If I can just get this stuff off him," she said through clenched teeth as she grunted while trying to pull him free.

He stirred once more and flickered his eyes open so he could cast them upon her. "You…are still alive," he groaned quietly in a raspy voice. "You're…you're not part of my dig team," he realized upon taking a closer look at her. "I don't know you."

"You wouldn't" Dani informed him as she finally managed to rip away some of the hardened acrylic, freeing the man's left arm. "We actually came to find a friend of ours, but we'll save anyone else that we can." She managed to rip another piece away from the wall, further freeing the man ever so slightly.

"We?" the man asked. "What's your name my child?" he asked her with a rasp in his breath.

Dani stopped pulling on the hardened acrylic and looked up at him. "Dani Phantom," she answered. "I'm here with my brother and sister.

"Phantom?" he asked in confusion before he recognized the name. "Oh, you're Kimberly's friend?" he realized.

"Yes," Dani asked with a bit more joy. "Do you know where she is?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," the man coughed. "She's…right next to me," he wheezed before he began coughing.

Dani looked to his side and walked another foot or two until she saw the glimpse of red from Kim's suit. "KIM!" she shouted horrified. She ran up to the older girl, the only wounds she presented were scratches on her face and tears in her suit. Nothing had broken through her ribcage luckily. "She's still alive," she said with delight.

"She won't be for much longer if we don't get out of here," the old man said as he reached around and tried to free his other arm unsuccessfully if Dani was struggling to free them. "You and your siblings are lucky to have found us," he stated as Dani went back to help him out of his confinements.

"I'd say so," Dani agreed with him before she heard something behind her. She and the old man looked up with horror stuck expressions as another creature came up behind them. It growled at them before screeching loudly. Before it or Dani could attack it was suddenly gunned down in a hail of gunfire. It screeched as it suddenly fell over dead.

Dani and the old man looked back up from the fallen creature as a flashlight was suddenly shone on them. They covered their eyes to keep out the light; when they were focused they saw that the light was coming from three men dressed in dark green jungle Camo. They were sporting heavy assault rifles and machine guns.

"We've got them," one of the men said into a walkie-talkie. They spread throughout the chamber, searching with their lights for any other targets. "Bogeys are down, targets have been acquired. Round up the other parties," he ordered the other men.

"Who are you people!" Dani asked angrily, putting herself between the heavily armed men and Kim and the old man. She was prepared to fight them to protect the two behind her.

"US Army," the leader stated as he walked past her and removed a large knife from its place on his side. "We're responding to a distress signal sent out nearly twelve hours ago," he said as he sliced through the hardened acrylic substance that Dani fought to tear with her hands, effectively freeing the old man. "We're a special task force sent in by the president himself to rescue and recover hostages from foreign threats," he explained as he helped the man down off the wall.

Another man came up and supported the old man to help him stand seeing as he was in no condition to walk out under his own power. "Took you guys long enough to get here," he coughed as the man led him out of the chamber with another man leading the way with an AK-47 to clear the path should any hostiles appear.

"I'm pretty sure we were doing things quite fine on our own," Dani scoffed the leader of the squadron.

"Not what your sister said," he retaliated with a scornful look in his eyes. Dani's eyes widened as he went into explanation. "We found her and the other kid fending off one of those things. We defused the situation, got them to safety and entered underground in search of survivors."

"We'll find your brother, you follow them out of here," another man ordered her.

"Excuse me!" Dani snapped angrily. "You're not the boss of me!" she growled. "I've killed more of these things than you've seen," she said as she kicked the remains of one of the creatures.

"We've had more experience than you," he growled at her. "Now get back to the surface. We don't need a little girl getting in the way."

"This LITLLE GIRL could kick your butt!" Dani warned him as she floated up into the air so she was eye level with the man and got right into his face.

"Stand down, the both of you!" the leader snapped at them. They both looked towards him before Dani descended to the chamber floor. "She could be of help to us on our mission," he suggested.

"Yah about that," Dani said as she turned back to the wall where Kim was still stuck. "I couldn't care less about your mission, whatever it is," she said as she charged an energy blast in her hands and shot the substance, shattering it and allowing Kim to fall into her arms.

"Good, because we have no intention of telling you," the other man growled.

"As soon as I find my brother we can get out of here," Dani said as she dragged an unconscious Kim by her feet. Suddenly the ground began shaking.

"Oh, he's not that far away," the leader said with a grin as his eyes swept across the room.

The room stopped shaking when the hidden trap door exploded open and shattered as Danny flew up through it after blasting it to pieces. He hovered in the air and formed an ecto-energy ball the size of a beach ball between his hands as he floated over the hole in the floor. "Come on you ugly sons of-!" he snarled.

Three creatures suddenly appeared from the hole, screeching as they jumped for him just as he launched his attack. They were blasted back down the hole before the attack exploded, sending bright green light out of the hole before the light faded away until smoke bellowed out of the hole.

Danny emerged from the smoke and prepared another attack upon seeing the men with guns. "Who are you people!" he demanded to know, an energized hand his bargaining chip.

"They're here to help," Dani informed him, stepping out from behind them with Kim slumped over her shoulder. "You wanna help me out over here?" she requested of him. He absorbed his energy and flew over to her to help carry Kim out.

"We'll explain more about what's going on to you kids after we get out of here," the leader informed them before he nodded to the other man who nodded in return, obviously understanding what he was to do. He dropped a duffle bag he had been carrying to his feet and unzipped it before removing what appeared to be a large ceramic jar with an odd symbol that shocked the Phantom siblings. It was a skull and cross bones surrounded in flames in the center of a radioactive symbol. Whatever this was was very dangerous, possibly even radioactive, or even nuclear.

They watched as the two men approached the hole in the chamber floor with the explosive in hand. They nodded at each other before tossing it down the hole and listened to it clank all the way to the bottom. "It's remote detonated so we have time to escape," the lower ranked soldier said as he pulled a remote out of the bag and handed it over to his superior who stuffed it into a pocket.

"What are you guys planning?" Danny asked curiously.

"You'll see kid," the leader said before he and his partner led the kids out of the chamber as the view darkened and reappeared above ground.

Danny and Dani were still carrying the unconscious Kim by draping her arms over their shoulders when they entered the dig site where dozens of other soldiers were gathering ground samples in jars or gathering scattered equipment from the dig team for reuse. "Where's the specter speeder?" Dani asked worryingly as they looked around.

"Damaged, being repaired," the lead soldier informed them as he came up behind them. "Alright people, time to move out!" he shouted to everybody else. "Grab what you can and move it!" he ordered. The soldiers didn't respond verbally, but they took their orders without haste. They grabbed up what equipment they could and made for a path in the jungle that led away from the dig site.

Danny and Dani proceeded to follow them but a creature's screech caught their attention. They turned with Kim still in hand and snarled as one of the creatures charged out of the tunnel only to be coaxed back in by several flamethrowers. With the creature gone, they followed the others through the jungle until they came to a large, flat clearing where dozens of soldiers were storing what equipment they had gathered into the back end of a Lockhead C-130 Hercules Military Aircraft, a large plane owned by the military currently being used for equipment and personnel transport.

A large flatbed truck with the damaged Specter Speeder strapped to it was currently being rolled into the military plane's cargo bay. At a table next to the back end of the plane were a number of medical personnel who were attending to wounds sustained to Jazz and Ron. They looked up as Danny and Dani carried Kim over to them as more soldiers scurried about around them.

"You found her!" Jazz cheered with joy, jumping out of her chair, startling the woman patching up a burn on her arm where the sleeve had been torn away.

"She needs medical attention," Danny stated as they rushed by her. "We all do," he added as they made their way up the ramp into the plane.

Jazz seemed confused by this but was convinced when she herself was coaxed onto the plane along with everyone else. Creatures could be heard screeching off in the jungle as the last person walked up the ramp into the plane backwards with a flamethrower in hand to prevent any final attacks. With everyone on board, the plane could take off.

The four teens loomed over Kim and the older many they had saved, who were laid on metal tables and strapped in so they wouldn't fall during the flight. The tables were in a small room at the front of the cargo bay, but it was wide enough to have windows on either side of the room.

They all looked up from their unconscious friend when the lead soldier entered the room. He removed the detonator remote from his pocket and flipped the launch guard away from the switch. "Time to blow those ugly bastards back to the Stone Age," he said to them before he flipped the switch.

Deep underground, the nuclear explosive that had been tossed down the floor shaft began beeping and emitting a flashing red light. Upon landing at the bottom of the shaft, it was now situated directly beneath the larger of the monstrous creatures that Danny had run into. It was still alive so he must have let it live knowing that it would meet its maker at some point, although he didn't know it would be under these conditions.

Many smaller creatures had gathered around to examine the device and were quite curious about it, especially now that it was blinking and beeping more and more rapidly. The larger creature supported on its strut throne screeched before a blinding flash engulfed the entire chamber.

Back above ground at the dig site outside of the temple, several of the creatures ran out of the tunnel screeching in terror before red hot flames began pouring out of the tunnel and engulfed them. A wider view of the temple revealed flames emerging from any and all cracks in the structure before the entire thing exploded in a massive fireball that drifted high into the air.

A further shot showing the entire area showed the massive fireball more extensively as it rose skyward. As the flames grew, a shockwave was suddenly emitted from underground, knocking down burning trees and killing any and all life in the area, including all of the creatures that were trying to flee into the jungle.

When the shockwave reached the military plane evacuating the area, it shook wildly but stayed airborne. The teens were relatively unprepared for the sudden turbulence, but quickly regained their composure and proceeded to look out the porthole window and saw a massive mushroom cloud of smoke and fire rising above the desiccated jungle behind them.

"A bit excessive, but considering how dangerous those things were," Danny stated to his sisters who were by his side. Ron had decided to stay by his sister's side so only the three Fenton children were observing the firefight outside. "We can only hope that they were all eliminated," he concluded.

"Yah, but at what cost?" Dani asked angrily as she scolded him. "The destruction of half of the rainforest? An ancient temple and the many mysteries it held that could have rewritten human history?"

"Or the destruction of the entire human race?" the lead soldier who authorized the detonation retaliated. Dani looked down and away from him in defeat when he said this. "Those things had the potential to eliminate all life on this planet. We had to be sure," he concluded, knowing full well that some important sacrifices had been made.

The scene ended with the plane flying away from the mushroom cloud that rose over the dense jungle as the light from the explosion and the resulting flames gave the impression of a dark world gone up in flames.

* * *

**HAHA! Enjoy the cliffhanger! I am halfway through writing part 3 and when it is finished and proofread I will post it was well. The fourth part is nothing more than ideas in my head at this point so it could take awhile before this story is complete. Just please be patient, it will come to an end sooner or later. **


	4. Part 3

In the medical room in the center of the plane, Danny and Danielle, back in their human forms, sat in chairs near the porthole window as they watched the Gulf of Mexico pass beneath them, moonlight reflecting off the water was the only indicator that they were over water. Jazz and Ron sat in their own chairs next to a still unconscious Kim. Ron patted her hand while Jazz swiveled in her chair so she looked down on the older man that had been rescued.

The wound to his stomach where he had been impaled was patched up as best as it could, but it still bled and if he didn't receive medical attention soon then his wound may end up being mortal. But for now, he was alive and well. An IV drip hung on a metal pole next to him, leading down a thin tube connected to a needle inserted into his left arm.

As Jazz wheeled her chair over to him, he opened his eyes upon hearing someone at his side. His eyes looked up at her, but he didn't move. He couldn't turn his head, let alone move his body without causing himself some sort of pain. "I hope I'm not intruding?" Jazz said softly enough for only him to hear. "But, are you Professor Wilson?" she asked curiously.

"Yes," he coughed. "And you must be Jasmine Fenton?" he guessed. "The older sibling to the young girl that helped get me out of there earlier?" he added to which Jazz nodded in confirmation. "Kimberly spoke so highly of you," he said with a smirk. "Will she be alright?" he asked with concern for the girl's life as he looked past Jazz at the ghost huntress suited girl on the metal table behind her.

"Yeah," Jazz answered, keeping her voice soft so their conversation remained private. "She's not as badly hurt as you are though sir," she admitted. "The two of you are the only survivors out of the entire dig team," she confessed to him.

"While I'm thankful that I got out alive, I wish others had survived," he admitted with a silent cough. "The old shouldn't outlive the young. If I could, I'd give my life to bring them back," he groaned before he closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.

Jazz sat in silence as the lead soldier that had helped them escape from the ruins entered the room from a doorway in the back. The open door behind him led to a series of stairs that led up to another level. He coughed to catch the four teen's attentions; they all looked at him as he began to elaborate. "I believe some explanations are in order," he stated simply.

"About time," Danielle groaned as she folded her arms.

"If you could follow me please," he requested of them before he turned and went back through the doorway, ascending and disappearing up the stairs.

Danny and Danielle sighed with frustration before they rose from their seats and proceeded across the room towards the door. Jazz and Ron remained in their seats to stay with Kim and Professor Wilson to make sure they stayed well.

"You go my dear," Professor Wilson whispered to Jazz. She looked down at him with a concerned look in her eyes from his request. "I'll be fine; now go with your siblings, find out what happened to my team for me?" he requested with a cough.

Jazz nodded to his request and rose from her chair. "You coming?" she asked Ron as she walked by him.

"No, you go," he said without taking his eyes off his sister. "I'm gunna stay here with Kim," he said, looking up at Jazz. "She should have someone here with her in case she wakes up while you're busy," he stated before looking back down at his sister. "Let me know?" he asked her.

"I'll fill you in later," she said with a tiny grin before she went through the doorway and chased after the other two, catching up with them just as they reached the center point where the stairs turned in the other direction and continued up. "So why do you think we're going all the way up here?" she asked them as if they could have known themselves.

"Beats me," Danny answered, no attitude, no puns, he was serious with his answer. "But I'm sure we'll find out when we go through that door," he said, nodding up towards a metal door at the top of the dark staircase.

From inside the brightly lit room, two uniformed men dressed in black suits, sunglasses and wired ear pieces stood on either side of the metal door. Someone knocked on the other side; one of the men reached over with no emotion and opened the door as the three teens entered into the room, shielding their eyes until they could adjust to the different lighting.

Across the room from the door was a metal desk with wood finishing bolted to the floor to prevent it from sliding around during flight. The front of the desk had a circular seal with the words, _'Seal of the President of the United States'_, circling around an eagle with a shield in front of it while it held several arrows and olive branches in its talons. Four seats sat in front of the desk; one currently being occupied by the still un-named soldier that had "rescued" them.

Three men stood behind the desk, two stood on either side of the man in the middle, both dressed as the same as the men by the door; black suits, sun glasses and ear pieces. The man to the left was easily the oldest and sported a full head of graying hair; the African-American man to the right was younger. The man in the middle wore a navy blue suit; he had his back facing the teens as he looked out a one-way glass window that overlooked the cargo bay where a number of soldiers were currently trying to rebuild the Specter Speeder using mysteriously attained blueprints. One man used a crane to replace the windshield glass while another banged dents out of the ships frame.

Despite having his back to them, they could tell the man looking out the window was African-American. His black hair was beginning to gray but when he turned around his face wasn't that of an elderly man, therefore revealing that his graying hair may have been from stress, stress acquired from his job as President of the United States of America.

"Ahh, welcome kids," he greeted them warmly. "If it weren't for recent conditions, it would be a very nice reunion for the four of us," he admitted through a fake smile that just screamed sorrow.

"Oh great," Danielle grumbled. "This guy again." Jazz and Danny both softly punched her into submission for her remark.

"It's always a pleasure to stand before the most politically powerful man in the world," Jazz intervened, disregarding Danielle's previous statement. The three of them closed their eyes and nodded their heads toward him in greeting before they stepped the rest of the way into the room so the secret service agents could close the door.

The man seemed rather amused by their show of decency. "Please take a seat?" he requested, waving his hand to the three empty chairs in front of the desk as he took his seat behind the desk. The three teens took their seats and made themselves comfortable. "You three are the youngest people to sit in those chairs," he said with a chuckle to lighten the mood.

"Could we please cut to the chase dude?" Danny asked with a cocked eyebrow as he folded his arms. "OWW!" he yelped when Jazz suddenly stomped on his foot.

"Don't call him "dude" Danny," she scoffed him as Danielle chuckled at her brother's misfortune from Jazz's other side. "He's not the kind of man we should be interrogating," she growled to him before she settled back into her seat. "I'm sorry Mr. President," she apologized for her brother's actions.

"Quite alright Jasmine," President Obama replied with a smirk. "Your brother has a valid point though," he admitted as he leaned back into his seat, making it creak. "We have matters to attend to. General Mills?" he said, looking at the soldier to his right; the teens left.

"Yes," the so called "General" responded before he turned towards the teens. "We have questions to ask you," he stated to them. "And of course you must have questions of your own," he added before they could respond. "And you will be answered," he concluded before putting his back against his seat's cushion.

"Alright," Danielle said with a cocky grin as she leaned back into her seat. "We'll talk…as long as you guys talk as well."

"And we don't want any half answers that are deemed confidential," Danny added.

"That all depends on what you ask son," President Obama retaliated. "You answer our questions truthfully and we'll tell you what we can in return," he offered them.

"Does all of this really have to turn into an interrogation?" Jazz asked nervously.

"YES!" Danny, Danielle, President Obama and General Mills half shouted in unison to her question.

"Can't we find other ways of discussing this situation?" she asked in a more serious tone, concerned for their well being.

"NO!" the four others responded in the same forceful tone. Defeated, she slumped back into her seat in a huff.

"We get the first question," Danny called. "What were those things?" he asked them. "Those killers!" he added with anger.

"That's confidential," President Obama stated simply, interlacing his fingers and smirking at them. Fire began burning furiously in Danny and Danielle's eyes upon not being given the answer they were looking for. The four secret service agents stepped forward, but President Obama held up his hand, a signal for them to stand down. He glanced at the General sitting next to the teens upon putting his hand down.

They looked at him as he sighed. "We don't really know what they are," he told them.

"Ohh hoo hoo, typical of the military, they never know anything," Danielle snickered with delight. "You and I both know that you're hiding something and you will answer the question," she demanded. Again the secret service agents stepped forward but were silently told to stand down.

"We can't answer because we don't know," President Obama answered, drawing their attention back to him. "But we have someone on board this plane that does know…supposedly," he added with uncertainty. "He's a scientist; he specializes in classifying different species of animals. He told us he believes that they are what he calls "Xenomorphs". We will speak with him later, so be sure to ask him that question."

"Now we'd like to know what you kids were doing there when you didn't know what you were up against?" General Mills asked them with a bit of aggression in his tone.

"You didn't answer the question," Jazz spoke up. "If this is gunna be an interrogation, then its gunna be tit-for-tat," she stated in a bossy tone as she folded her arms and stuck her nose into the air with disgust.

"Your answer will be given to you later," President Obama reassured her. "I'll make it my personal business to make sure you get a full and truthful answer from our specialist; now answer the General's question," he said more as a request than a demand.

The three teens exchanged questionable looks as they decided how they should proceed. "We were there to rescue Kim," Danny answered with a long sigh.

"By yourselves?" the General asked. "Did you even know what you were up against down there?"

"Did you?" Danielle asked with a cocky grin. The general squinted his eyes angrily. "You didn't know what you were walking into either," she mocked him. "You don't even know what those things are, let alone how to kill them without causing damage to yourself."

"Ugh, neither did we at first," Danny whispered across Jazz.

"Shut it," Danielle growled through clenched teeth.

"We've been trained for dangerous situations," General Mills answered one of Danielle's rants. "We learn to react quickly to ever changing environments. We went in prepared for the unexpected. We aren't just a bunch of teenagers with toy guns."

"Teenagers!" Danielle snapped as she rose from her seat, shocking everybody in the room, but the secret service agents didn't react this time. "Look here buddy!" she half yelled as she pointed at him. "We've saved the entire planet from destruction on more than one occasion," she reminded him. "This last summer being the most recent," she added. "So don't tell me that you've had more experience in dangerous situations when the things we've seen and done every day make what you do every day look like nothing!"

"I'm intervening in this before it turns into a bloodbath," Jazz shouted before she grabbed Danielle by her right arm and pulled her back into her seat. "Yes, we went in there pretty much unprepared for what we were up against," she settled for answering. "But that was because we were told that our friend's life was in danger. We had to save her and as many others as we could, even though only her and Professor Wilson survived."

"Wait!" General mills half shouted. "How did you find out that the dig team was in danger?" he asked in confusion. "How were you able to respond so much faster than we were?" he added in the same confused manner.

"Ahh, ahh, ahh," Danny mocked him as he wiggled his index finger at the man. "Tit-for-tat, remember? We answered your question, now you have to answer another one of ours."

"UGH! I'm about to bust a nerve with these restrictions," the General groaned as he rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

President Obama smirked and chuckled to himself. "What is your next question?" he asked the kids.

"If you guys had arrived sooner than you had then more people might have made it out of there alive," Jazz stated. "What took the government, you guys, so long to respond to the distress signal sent out during the initial attack on the dig site?" she asked with concern.

"The distress signal was from foreign grounds," General Mills answered. The three teens looked at him as he elaborated. "It took time to gather a sufficient team and equipment together. We had to find a plane big enough to carry a large load of soldiers plus we had to go to Washington and pick up the president as he demanded to go."

"We left from Washington in Air Force One and had to make a quick detour to a US military base in Brazil two hundred miles due north of the ancient ruins to make it legal to land troops on Amazonian soil," President Obama continued to elaborate. "Once we had clearance, we headed straight there," he concluded.

"We couldn't just send in a task force without the proper clearance," General Mills informed them. "Otherwise, the rescue operation could have been considered an invasion of foreign soil, and the Brazilian government would have had the right to declare war on America as a result."

"Granted our army is far superior to theirs and they wouldn't have stood a chance…" President Obama stated. "It would have still looked bad on our part. We needed to set things straight before we could set foot within the grounds of the temple."

"It's a bunch of political jargon really," General Mills admitted. "Sorry to say, but you kids wouldn't really understand unless you know how to deal in International Politics," he informed them.

"Now, you entitle us to another question," President Obama speculated. "Care to tell us how a bunch of kids were able to respond to all of this so much faster than us?" he asked them as he eyeballed all three of them one at a time.

Danny immediately changed into his ghost form, startling the four secret service agents to step forward but they restrained themselves. He held up his hand and created a small flame in his palm before he transferred it to his other hand. "Our powers are always growing more powerful, more intricate, changing, evolving," he said as he tossed the small fireball back and forth in his hands. "Danielle and I are starting to realize a new power previously unknown to us," he informed the president. "This is as much as I can control it," he said before he let the flames disappear and he changed back into his human form.

"The power itself is resilient in our ghost forms," Danielle added to the explanation. "And quite uncontrollable when we're in our powered up forms."

"We were seeking help in the ghost zone as to how we'd go about learning to control this power," Danny continued explaining. "Apparently we have to wait until the power itself surfaces in our human forms but that is beside the point."

"An old friend of ours, Clockwork, gave us this information on their powers before telling us about Kim's plight and that we were needed to ensure her fate, whether it be dead or alive," Jazz explained. "He said he couldn't help us and the only information he gave us was that those creatures were very dangerous and were threatening not only her life, but those of the entire dig team as well."

"But considering that we face danger almost every single day, we decided to go and try to save Kim, despite the risk to our own safety," Danielle continued to explain for her older siblings. "We thought we could handle everything and get out by ourselves, but apparently we were wrong. We over estimated our enemy, but learned a great weakness about it in the end."

"Their blood is a highly corrosive acid," Danny elaborated. "It can melt right through just about anything, but it's like gun powder or gasoline, it becomes extremely explosive when exposed to open flames. A handy little trick that we learned by mistake and it helped us in the long run," he said with a smirk.

"Is that so?" President Obama asked, a bit surprised that they had found this out. "If only they could have told you guys when you arrived," he mentioned to the general. "Or if only you could have figured it out for yourselves considering some of you men were using flamethrowers," he added as he scolded the uniformed man. The general gulped nervously before sinking into his seat.

"Ok, we have one more question to ask you guys?" Danielle mentioned. "Now that we're out of there, where are you guys going to take us?" she asked nervously. "Because if it's some military installation to wipe our memories, then you can forget about it," she growled angrily.

"Just to Washington my dear," President Obama reassured her calmly. "I have to return to the white house; after we land you'll have to stick around long enough for Kimberly and her professor to be looked at in the hospital. While you're waiting, some of our best mechanics will be trying to repair your flying vehicle. Once everything is clear, you'll all be free to head home under your own free will. No strings attached."

"That's it?" Danny asked curiously. "No strings attached?" he repeated the last thing the president said. "What, no questioning in the basement of a government building? No wiping our memories of what happened? No blackmailing us into keeping quiet about what happened?"

"Well what exactly would you say?" General Mills asked him in response to his many questions. "You don't know what those things are, we don't even know. Can't tell stories about things when we only know half of the facts."

"None of us know what happened before any of us showed up," President Obama clarified. "The only people left alive that know are down below in the medical room," he said as he nodded his head towards the floor.

Danny and Danielle sunk into their seats when they understood what he meant. If they started telling half stories then they'd be construed as lunatics trying to draw attention to themselves; and being half ghost, they drew enough of that as it was. Jazz on the other hand stood from her seat, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Well then, I guess it's time we go back downstairs and wake up our friend so we can put this mystery to bed once and for all," she said as she pounded a fist into the open palm of her other hand.

* * *

In the medical room, Professor Wilson was finally able to sit up on his table with the help of a man that had recently entered the room. He wore a clean white lab coat that remained open in the front to show his black dress pants and a light blue long sleeved shirt, the sleeves of which went unseen. A red name tag was pinned to the outside of his lab coat, it read 'Bishop'. A rather tall man, 'Bishop' had a long face with curiously raised eyebrows resting above a permanently surprised expression. His brown hair showed little gray for his age, it was cut short with a few cowlicks sticking up to reveal a high forehead.

He was currently standing over the older man who had undone his button up shirt so the medical doctor could work. He pressed a cold stethoscope to the man's chest and listened to his breathing and heart rate. "Well, your breathing and heart rate seem normal," Dr. Bishop stated before he took the man's pulse. "And you're pulse is a little slow due to your stomach wound, but nothing that can't be solved with a little rest," he concluded. "Now you're sure you've never felt this before?" he asked the old man.

"No, never," Professor Wilson coughed before he grabbed his chest in agony. "My chest is killing me. I think I may just have been a little over excited back there," he coughed. "Do you think this is a heart attack doctor?" he asked, looking up from his chest where his hand lay.

"No, you don't have pain shooting up and down your left arm," Dr. Bishop informed him as he pointed his pen at him before he went on to jotting a few notes down on a clipboard of paper. "You're just exhausted from recent events, too much excitement," he said with a smile as he set his clipboard down and walked over to a wall mounted medicine cabinet. "We'll be able to get a better reading back in Washington to determine the cause of the pain," he said as he searched through the medicine cabinet before he removed a small bottle. "Until then, these pain killers should help," he suggested as he offered two tiny red pills to the older man who graciously took them without haste, using a nearby glass of water to wash them down.

All the while Dr. Bishop was attending to Professor Wilson, Ron continued to stay be his sister's side. Still unconscious, she no longer lay as stiff as a board. She rolled on the table and trembled as her face contorted with fearful expressions as she relived the hellish nightmare she had been through.

She moaned in her sleep before finally managing to flicker her eye lids open. She closed them immediately because they hadn't adjusted to the bright lights but when they did she reopened them and slowly turned her head to find herself in the small medical room of the plane, of course she had no way of knowing this was a plane just yet. She heard two older man talking, Dr. Bishop and Professor Wilson, before she noticed Ron sitting at her side with her hand resting in his.

He was currently preoccupied with looking away from her, his gaze passing over her and towards a hazardess waste bin stuck to the wall of the plane on the other side of the room. The dark red shadows of the contaminated objects within showing that it would be in need of emptying soon.

She tightened her grip around her brother's hand, drawing his attention away from the bio-hazardess bin on the wall. He looked down at her with saddened eyes that quickly widened in surprise upon seeing her look up at him. "KIM! You're finally awake!" he shouted with delight.

"Does that mean I'm alive?" she asked in groggily but with a weak smile. "Or we're both dead?" she asked more curiously as she looked around cautiously.

"No, no, you're very much alive," her brother reassured her with glee. "We got word from Clockwork that you were in trouble, so we rushed down here to save you," he informed her.

A smile and a sigh of relief washed through Kim as she leaned her head back against the metal table. Then her eyes shot open as she gasped with horror. "What about the others!" she asked fearfully.

Ron was taken aback by this question and didn't quite know how to answer her. Luckily, someone else was. "Well thankfully, you're not the only survivor," the elderly and raspy voice of Professor Wilson coughed from out of her sight.

"Professor!" Kim gasped with delight as she leaned up on her table to get a better view of him before a sudden pain as if she were being stabbed with dozens of knives several times over went up and down her right arm. "OWW!" she shouted as she grabbed for her arm with her left and found a blood stained gauze pad wrapped tightly around what had once been a gash on her forearm.

She took a moment to register what it was before the sound of a metal door opened. She looked up from her arm and turned around so she could see who had just entered the room; while on the table she had her back facing the door that had been opened. "She's awake!" Danielle called out with delight before she rushed the college girl and wrapped her arms around her, being sure not to touch the blood soaked bandages on her arm.

Danny and Jazz took turns embracing her before President Obama approached her through the small mass of people whilst being flagged on nearly all sides by the four secret service agents. "It's good to see you awake, Ms. Masters," he greeted her warmly as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes widened when she realized who he was. "Mr. President," she gasped softly before she nodded her head towards him in greeting. "It's nice to see you again," she said with a blush. "So, you helped my friends rescue me?" she asked curiously, her face remaining blushed.

"Well, we found you on our own just fine," Danielle intervened before he could answer. "But we don't know how well we would have fared getting you out without their help," she added.

"We?" Kim asked before a soldier in full body camo and an automatic rifle at his side appeared through the small group of people.

"General Mills, at your service," he saluted her as he raised his weapon and balanced it across his shoulder. "My men received a distress signal earlier this morning; with orders from the president and after some quick legal debates with the Brazilian government, we were allowed access to the ruins. Unfortunately, your friends had beaten us to the punch," he explained.

"They helped us escape on a military plane before the entire site was eradicated to exterminate all of those things," Jazz informed her softly. "Sadly though, by the time we found you, only you and Professor Wilson were still alive," she said with sorrow.

"We'd rather not tell you how the others died," Danny said reluctantly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Frankly, they were images I don't think Danielle and I will ever be able to erase from our memories and you're probably haunted from the experience enough as it is," he explained, although almost none of what he said got through to her.

"They're dead," Kim whispered to herself. "Pete, Katie, Frankie, Professor Maggie…Robert," she said before she paused. "I can't believe I'm never gunna see them again," she began to weep. Tears streamed from her eyes as Jazz sat on the table next to her and placed a warm arm across her shoulders.

The room went silent as they all took a moment of silence for the dead before a squeaking sound pulled them back to reality. They all glanced at Dr. Bishop as he finished pulling a latex glove over one of his hands. "Sorry dear, but grieving will have to wait just a little while longer," he spoke up as he pulled on a second latex glove. "We couldn't do this while you were asleep, but now that you're awake, we can proceed with a quick preliminary exam for any injuries," he implied as he grabbed up his clipboard.

"Kim, this is Dr. Frank Bishop," President Obama introduced her to him. "He's a trauma specialist and a Zoologist." Then he turned to the three other teens. "He is the expert that I told you about," he explained to them. "He believes he knows more about those creatures than anyone else."

"And I will get to explaining after I've been given some more details on the situation," Dr. Bishop explained as he used a medical instrument to look into Kim's eyes. "That of course, will have to wait until I've finished up with Kimberly." He pulled away from her eyes and stood up straight. "I'm gunna need you to remove your suit my dear," he advised as he jotted down notes on his clipboard.

"What?" Kim asked in shock as she looked down at herself. "I'm sorry Dr., but I don't exactly think it's proper that I strip down to my underwear for you, especially with all of my friends around us," she said, refusing his request.

"He just needs you to take off the top half of the suit," Jazz reassured her. "I assume you're wearing a shirt?" she whispered in her ear.

Feeling reassured, Kim finally and reluctantly removed what was left of the tattered top half of her ghost hunting suit, tossing it to Danny who tossed it into the trash when it nearly fell apart in his hands; she obviously wouldn't be putting it back on at this point. Next she unbuttoned her brown colored dig-site shirt and removed it so she was left wearing a sports bra underneath a camisole. Despite still wearing concealing clothing, she was flushed beat red from embarrassment as Dr. Bishop used his stethoscope to listen to her breathing. She flinched when the cold metal made contact with her skin, but she pushed through, taking deep breaths when told to.

"You're breathing is quite irradical," Dr. Bishop said wonderingly. He glanced off into space as his hand moved the end of cold device between the girl's shoulder blades as she continued to breathe deeply. "Much like your professor was a little while ago," he wondered to himself.

He and the others looked up at the professor as he grabbed his chest in agony again and began to sweat profusely. He yelled loudly in agony as he gasped for air and fell back onto his table. Dr. Bishop gave him a look of worry before he left the teenage girl and went to the older man's side. "It's gotta be…my heart…this time," the man wheezed as he clenched his chest harder. He yelled in agony again as more pain rippled throughout his chest.

President Obama stepped backwards, behind his secret service agents as the man yelled in agony at his apparent heart attack. The three Fenton's looked on helplessly as Dr. Bishop tried to pull his hand away from his chest so he could examine him. Ron stayed by his sister and stopped her from getting off her table to assist him. "Professor?" she asked with a whimper as fear began to fill her eyes.

Professor Wilson yelled in agony again, this time much more loudly as the sound of bones cracking and breaking emanated from his chest. His hands grabbed the edges of his table and held on tightly as he writhed on the table. He yelled again with a bloodcurdling scream as the sound of more bones cracked.

"Oh crud!" General Mills half yelled frightfully as he ran out of the room at a sprint and went out into the hanger where backup would be waiting for his order. As he is heard giving orders out in the other room, the others, with the exception of Dr. Bishop, moved as far away from the professor as they could.

"You need to calm down professor!" Dr. Bishop half yelled to him in advisement. He grabbed the man's shoulders and held him against the table as he squirmed to try and get free. "Fight against the pain! You can beat this thing!" he yelled his encouragement.

Professor Wilson opened his eyes and looked up at the Dr. before he reached out and grabbed the man's lab coat and pulled him in close enough to hear him whisper. "Kill…me," he croaked before he yelled with agony again as the sounds of bones breaking echoed throughout the room.

Dr. Bishop looked down at the man's chest as it began to bulge out where his breast plate should have been and began bleeding profusely. "WHAA!" he yelped as he jumped backwards as the professor let out one last bloodcurdling scream just as his chest exploded.

Everyone winced and looked away. When they looked at what happened, they were horrified by what they saw. Dr. Bishop's face and lab coat were splattered with blood. He looked on in horror at a blood covered creature jutted its head out of Professor Wilson's chest. It screeched before it jumped to the floor and scurried away, leaving behind a trail of blood.

It didn't get far though, as it headed towards the door that led into the plane's hanger, it swung open and there stood General Mills and two other soldiers with flamethrowers. "TORCH IT!" he ordered the two men. They aimed their flamethrowers at the small creature and fired as it screeched in agony itself.

Reacting to keep the flames away from themselves and everyone else, Danny and Danielle used as much energy as they could while still in human form to generate an ecto-plasmic barrier that separated them from the other side of the room. Their barrier eventually began to shrink and curved in on itself to form a small dome that completely encircled the creature.

It screeched from within the ecto-barrier dome, banging its head against the inside wall only to daze itself. General Mills quickly replaced the ecto-barrier dome with a glass one as the energy dissipated into gas. With the creature now trapped in the glass dome, it was quickly taken away by a scientist in a white lab coat that took it off through a third doorway that led into an adjacent room.

Shock kept the entire room quiet before everyone glanced at Professor Wilson as he lay motionless on his metal table. Dr. Bishop felt his pulse and concluded he was dead, but that was already obvious. His chest had literally exploded so that thing could get out. His ribs were bent outwards revealing an empty chest cavity where his lungs and heart had mysteriously disappeared.

Danny, Danielle, General Mills and the two other soldiers had already seen this kind of devastating mortality back at the temple, but the others hadn't. Danielle closed her eyes tightly and hid her face in Danny's shoulder. Ron was horrorstruck, his eyes were wide and his mouth hung open slightly. Jazz held her hands up to her mouth as tears swelled from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. President Obama was completely flabbergasted, even the four agents that stood around him showed reaction to what they had witnessed.

Kim had been hit the hardest, her eyes were wide with horror as she stared off into space in her now deceased professor's direction with her mouth hung open. She tried to cry, and even tried to sputter up something to say, but ended up turning around and throwing up behind her table, out of view before she wiped her mouth on her arm and looked back at the horror scene. "Is this what happened to the others?" she asked in a dreadful whisper.

"Yes," Danielle whispered with a sniffle. "It was those things, they're responsible for this, they've just gotta be."

Everyone looked up at Dr. Bishop as he used a towel to wipe blood off his face. He looked up at everyone else looking at him. "Why's everyone looking at me?" he asked nervously.

"You're the expert, dude," Ron reminded him. "You're supposed to know what those things are," he growled in despair as he pointed at the spot where the small creature had been captured.

"You know what happened here Frank?" President Obama asked him with a stern tone. "Does this match anything that you're aware of?" he asked as he pointed to the mutilated man lying dead on the table.

"Yes, but perhaps we should get Mr. Wilson's body out of here," Dr. Bishop suggested nervously. General Mills nodded in agreement and looked towards the two soldiers that had come in with him. They understood what they were to do. A secret service agent opened a cupboard and pulled out a large body bag and tossed it to the soldiers who opened it and lifted the deceased professor's body into it before they carried it out into the hanger.

"Was that thing one of those creature's we dealt with back in the Amazon?" Danny asked in a stern tone as he finally pulled Danielle away from his shoulder where she had been crying. She sniffled and rubbed her bloodshot eyes dry before she took on a more serious expression.

"I believe what you have just seen is called a 'Chest Burster', the creature's third stage of development before adulthood," Dr. Bishop explained reluctantly as he tried to keep the discussion to a minimum. His answer must not have been good enough because everyone except Kim and Ron who were still by her table began to gather around him, trapping him against a wall. He started to sweat profusely before he spoke again. "Yes," he confirmed. "That thing was one of those creature's you disposed of back in the Amazon."

"Great, this is just GREAT!" Danielle yelled as she turned around and threw her hands into the air as she stomped away from the group. "So those things do use humans to breed?" she asked angrily, confirming what she figured out when Clockwork told them about the creatures back in the ghost zone.

"How is it that you know so much about these things?" Jazz asked angrily as folded her arms and scowled at the man.

"They've been discovered in many other places," Dr. Bishop answered nervously. "None have ever been found alive, so my collective research on them is limited, but I have seen all four stages of their development and I understand how they grew. We still don't know how they interact amongst each other or how their eggs are produced."

This sent off a light bulb in Danny's head. "They have a queen," he informed them. Everyone turned to look at him. "They're like insects, they have a queen."

"And how is it that you came across this information when I've been studying these animals for longer than you've been alive?" Dr. Bishop asked him with a cocky grin.

"Because I saw it," Danny retaliated in a know-it-all tone. Dr. Bishop's grin disappeared and turned into a frown. "I witnessed her laying those eggs in a basement to the temple before we rescued Kim and blew the place to smithereens."

"Yeah, yeah, and then the eggs hatch and those scorpion things jump out," Danielle added as she began to ponder. "But those things don't look anything like the creatures themselves," she wondered.

"It also doesn't explain how they go from this scorpion stage to busting out of people's chests," President Obama intervened. "That ever come up in your studies?" he asked the good doctor.

"I've never worked with live specimens," he responded with a shrug of the shoulder. "I can't explain that."

"They attach themselves to a person's face," Kim spoke up. Everyone looked towards her; she was still sitting on her table with Ron by her side. "I saw one of them attach itself to one of the other students," she explained. "I also saw one of them attached to Professor Wilson before…" she said before her eyes widened with horror as she went off on a tangent. "Oh god," she whispered.

"Hmm, that might explain a little," Dr, Bishop wondered to himself. "The secondary scorpion-like stage attaches itself to the face and implants the third stage into the person's chest cavity through their airways where it grows and matures until it's ready to escape from its host," he speculated.

This of course fell on deaf ears. Ron stood and tightened his grip on his sister's hand as she stared off into space with her mouth hung open slightly. "Kim, what's wrong?" he asked her worryingly.

"I…he…it," she stuttered before she looked him in the eyes and found her words. "After I saw one of those things attached to Professor Wilson, I…" she said again before she looked down and started breathing erratically.

"Kim," Jazz said as she shoved Ron out of the way and held onto her friend's hands as she knelt down and looked her in the eyes. "What happened?" she asked in the same worried tone. Kim's mouth moved as she answered, but her words were silent and no one heard a thing. "You have to speak up sweetie," Jazz said as she put a hand on Kim's cheek and turned her face so they were eye to eye. "What happened?" she asked again, this time in a more serious tone.

"There's one inside me," she whispered as tears began to stream from her eyes, her breathing suddenly increasing. Jazz' eyes widened with fear as her hand dropped to the table. "One of those things attached itself to me," she said louder, loud enough for the other's to hear. "One of them attached itself to me!" she half yelled. "I've got one of those things inside me!" she yelled as she began to tremble. "IT'S INSIDE ME!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Her hand instantly reached for her heart as she began to breathe heavily. She started sweating bullets as she trembled with fear.

"Oh no," Jazz gasped in realization that her life was in danger. "Don't worry, we still have time to get it out of you," she tried to reassure her before she looked at the Dr. who was still backed up against the wall by President Obama and the four secret service agents. "Can you operate on her?" she asked desperately.

"I…ugh…well," he said nervously. "I'm not exactly a…surgical…doctor," he said reluctantly as he began rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Oh God!" Kim yelped frighteningly as she used her free hand and covered her mouth while her other hand continued to clutch at her chest above her heart. "Please, you guys have to get it out," she whimpered.

"It's ok, it's ok, we'll think of something," Danielle reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Kim suddenly yelped in pain as she clenched the front of her shirt in her hand. "Come up with something quick," she winced before she yelled again, this time in enough pain to fall back onto her table.

"Oh no! It can't be happening already?" Danny yelled with fear for his friend's life as he got by her side.

"How long do these parasites take to grow within someone?" Ron asked fearfully, turning around towards the doctor who was now being pressed against the wall by two secret service agents. His mouth was covered but he was allowed to speak to answer his question.

"I don't know exactly," he answered quickly. "It probably depends on the health of the host," he speculated. "The Professor was already weakened from his stomach wound; the creature's gestation period would have been slowed due to his waning health."

"And Kim is in relatively good health," President Obama realized. "The creature's gestation period would be significantly faster," he said as his eyes widened. He and the others looked at Kim as she yelled in agony again much like the professor was only minutes ago. "You know what you have to do," he said in a more calm tone as he backed away from the doctor.

The teens looked up at him thinking he was talking to them, but he had actually addressed the four secret agents. They released the doctor from his hold against the wall and withdrew their side arms before taking aim at the girl on the table as she trembled with agony. She saw them and screamed, only causing herself more pain.

"Wait!" Danielle screamed, jumping between the men and their target. "You can't just shoot her, you'll kill her!"

"She's as good as dead anyway," the African American secret service agent scoffed without lowering his weapon.

"She'll die when that thing comes out," General Mills added, he too had his own service pistol, a magnum, aimed directly on the college freshman. "We have to at least kill that thing before that happens," he explained.

Danielle didn't back down. Instead she used what energy she could while in human form and created a half circular barrier around herself and the others, effectively blocking them from firing upon them. "We still have a chance to save her!" Danielle shouted with a snarl.

"How, Dani?" President Obama half yelled angrily as he pushed his way in front of his men who lowered their weapons. "We can't operate on her in a plane above the Gulf of Mexico!" he reminded her. "And it's not like we can just reach into her and pull it out!"

Kim yelled in agony again, this time her screams were accompanied by the sound of bones cracking. The teens looked down at her with worried looks in their eyes before Jazz came up with an idea. "Danny!" she yelled fearfully. "Reach into her and pull it out!" she ordered him, realizing that President Obama had given them the answer as to how to save her.

"Yeah, she's right!" Ron yelled upon realizing that she was right. "Go intangible and reach into her and pull out that disgusting thing!"

"B-But," Danny stuttered. "What if I accidently grab her heart or one of her lungs or something?" he asked, reluctant to go through with the request.

Kim yelled with a bloodcurdling scream as the sound of more bones cracking emanated from her chest. "DANNY!" Jazz yelled at him.

Danny looked at his sister before looking back down at Kim as she screamed again. Her hands grabbed for the table as she arched her back, protruding her chest upwards as the creature within tried to break free of her rib cage. He lowered his eyebrows as his eyes began glowing bright green with rage.

"ARGH!" he yelled as he raised both of his hands into the air and brought them down as he transformed into his ghost form. By the time his transformation was complete; his hands had gone intangible and were plunged deep into Kim's chest as he pushed her back down against the top of the table with enough force to dent the surface of the table into the shape of a person.

Kim's eyes opened and her normally aquamarine colored eyes now glowed the same icy blue as Danny's. Her mouth opened and a whiff of blue breath escaped from her mouth before she looked down to see Danny's intangible hands reaching through her bust as he maneuvered his hands around to find the creature. "ARGH!" she yelled as she closed her eyes again and clenched her teeth together.

Danielle put down the barrier and ran to Kim's side where everybody else already was. The secret service men lowered their weapons but kept them out as President Obama stepped forward. "This could actually work," he said as he loomed over Jazz and Ron who tried to comfort Kim as she squirmed on the table.

"Your moving around isn't making any of this any easier," Danny scolded her. She opened her eyes and they had returned to their normal color of aquamarine. Her breathing had slowed but she was still taking deep breaths in rapid succession. Danny's arms tensed up and stopped moving when he had grabbed onto something. "I've got it!" he called out. He looked up and over the others at the secret service men who still had their guns out and lowered. "I'm gunna throw it to the corner of the room," he told them. "When I do, shoot it!" he ordered them.

They nodded and aimed for the corner of the room where a table of medical supplies and a waste basket sat beneath the biohazard bin that hung on the wall. When they were in position to fire, Danny pulled his arms out of Kim's chest, tugging the creature out with them. Intangibly, it came out without causing any more harm, leaving Kim still alive when Danny had thrown it into the corner of the room.

The creature screeched as it flew through the air before landing in the waste basket underneath the medical supply table. The secret service men opened fire but missed when the creature jumped out of the waste basket and landed on the medical supply table. They re-aimed at it as it leapt into the air and grabbed the biohazard bin as they opened fire again.

It screeched at them before leaping through the air and landing on another table as their bullets ricochet off the table and the biohazard bin, tearing it open and dumping its hazardous contents all over the floor. It then ran to the edge of the table and leapt through the air directly at General Mills who was the only obstacle between it and the hanger.

In slow motion, the creature flew through the air at him as he raised his gun to shoot it. Before he could fire, it had latched itself onto his Magnum, preventing him from shooting it. He attempted to fling his arms to detach the creature before it had the chance to latch onto him, but to no avail. Lucky for him though, someone else was prepared to step in.

Before the creature could strike him from such close range, it was suddenly pulled away from him after a series of metallic wires wrapped themselves around its midsection. It screeched as it flew through the air as Jazz swung her arms over her head as she held tightly onto her father's invention, the Jack O' Nine-Tails. The wires from the Jack O' Nine-Tails released the creature sending it flying across the room directly towards Dani in her ghost form.

She jumped into the air and with an energized fist, twirled around and swung the back of her energized fist into the creature when it was close enough. The force of the resulting blast wasn't enough to kill it, but it was stunned and smacked into the wall before falling to the floor where it was suddenly encased within a small ecto-plasmic energy dome, just like the last one.

Danny and the older secret service agent with graying hair cautiously approached the energy dome, Danny's hands glowed with ambient energy from trapping the creature, the secret service agent aimed his hand gun at the creature trapped within the dome but didn't fire. Instead, the same scientist that took the first one away came along and quickly gathered it up in a large glass jar before taking it away.

"Something really strange is going on here," Danny theorized in a hushed whisper so only the secret service man could hear him. He nodded in agreement before they heard Kim's labored breathing.

They glanced back at Kim as she slumped back onto her medical table. Her hand was still clenching her chest as she breathed heavily, but she wasn't in as much pain anymore. "I feel like…I just gave birth," she wheezed, managing to smile slightly.

"Well congratulations," her brother sighed. "It was a boy," he said jokingly.

Kim's smile widened and she chuckled; it was at this time that she was once again stricken with excruciating pain. "YAAAH!" she screamed. "My chest is on fire!" she screamed.

"Oh no!" Jazz screamed as she ran for her friend's aid. "Does she have another one of those things in her?" she asked fearfully.

As she struggled to breathe without screaming, Kim's eyes became bloodshot and she continued sweating profusely as she looked down at her chest. With each and every single breath, her ribs could be seen through her skin at several points. They had been fractured and were rising unevenly as she breathed in and out, causing her extreme pain.

"She has flail chest," Dr. Bishop explained as he approached the table and the girl lying on it. He gently removed her hand away and more closely examined the bumpy protrusions in her skin. "See the paradoxical motion?" he pointed out. "She has several broken ribs."

"Probably from that thing trying to break out," Dani figured as she joined her older sister by Kim's side.

"Wait wait wait," Jazz suddenly blurted out trying to re-understand the situation. "Flail chest!" she half yelled fearfully. "That's life-threatening!" she screeched.

"WHAT!" Kim screamed with a high pitched screech before she yelled with agony and fell back onto the table.

"Only if her ribs were fractured inwards after being crushed by blunt force trauma," Dr. Bishop corrected her. He turned towards his work station and removed several rolls of wrapping tape. "If that were to happen, then her ribs would be protruding inwards, threatening to severe major arteries and puncture her lungs," he explained as he re-approached the table and began unrolling one of the rolls. "The creature tried to break out, meaning her ribs are only in danger of protruding through her skin. She'll be fine just as long as we reset them properly and wrap them up tightly to keep them in place while they heal." He then proceeded to go about doing just so until he was interrupted from his work.

"Hold on there, buddy," General Mills shouted at him aggressively, halting his advance to treat Kim's injury. "Not ten minutes ago you said that you weren't a medical doctor, and now you're gunna operate on her?"

"I'm not gunna operate on her," Dr. Bishop retaliated. He looked straight at the soldier with a straight face and did not deviate. "You don't have to be an MD to reset bones. This could sting a little," he said randomly as he put his hand over the fracture site of two of Kim's broken ribs.

"What?" she asked, leaning up a little before the doctor pushed down with just enough forced to realign the bones into their proper positions, his eyes still on the soldier. "YAAAAH!" she screamed in agony as her bones were forced back into place. Her bones felt like they were on fire, the pain spreading throughout her chest and out into her arms.

"Use some anesthesia for god's sake, man!" President Obama beleaguered him. "Can't you see she's in enough pain as it is?" he harped.

"The fractured area is too large for a local anesthetic," Dr. Bishop informed him as he forced another one of Kim's broken ribs back into place, causing her to scream again, thus making everyone else wince. "And even if it wasn't, we'd risk numbing her heart into submission, effectively stopping it from pumping blood. Now that combined with the numbing of her lungs and her diaphragm would cause her to stop breathing; it would kill her," he said mater-of-fact'ly as he placed another rib into position under the skin with a loud CRACK! "Within minutes," he added harshly.

A quick outside shot of the military plane previewed as the scene rotated around it as it flew over the night-time ocean with the moon being reflected in the water below. The scene shot back into the plane as Kim lay resting on her table after her ribs had been realigned and her entire chest had been wrapped tightly in binding cloth. It was tight enough to greatly reduce her bust, but it was necessary to keep her ribs from separating so they could heal properly. In order for the good doctor to have done this properly, her camisole and sports bra had to be removed and were set off to the side.

All she needed by this point was rest and as little excitement as possible. The tightness of her bondage greatly reduced her breathing so would have caused her great pain as she struggled to expand her lungs further, increasing the chance of pushing her ribs back out of realignment. But for now, the pain had subsided and she was resting peacefully with her friends by her side.

The entire room had long since fallen silent. Dr. Bishop looked over his notes while President Obama discussed things over with two of his secret service agents. The third, established as an older man in his mid to late fifties, he had graying hair and a full head of it. He was square jawed and expressed a stern expression as he fiddled with a pen. The fourth, an African-American into his mid forties with short curly hair simply leaned against the wall with his arms folded.

Jazz and Ron both had taken seats near Kim. Across the room from them, Danny and Danielle sat backwards in their seats. They leaned on the back of their seats from boredom; dark circles under their eyes showed just how exhausted they were. They were in desperate need of sleep, although they refused to until they had cleared up this mess. Near them sat General Mills as he wiped down the barrel of his M16, paying no attention to anything that was going on in the room. Finally, the silence was broken.

"How long can these things live for?" Danielle asked, directing her question towards the doctor. "How long have they been around?" she added. Everyone in the room, with the exception of the sleeping Kim, looked at him for his answer.

"We believe since the beginning of recorded history," Dr. Bishop answered her. "We've never gotten the chance to study any living ones before; they've all been fossilized where they'd fallen thousands of years ago, but we believe that they can survive in almost any environment for hundreds and hundreds of years."

"How wide spread were they found?" President Obama asked.

"All over," Dr. Bishop answered him almost immediately. "Ancient Asian civilizations have recorded such creatures existing thousands of years ago, but they were mostly found in the America's. Some found in Arizona and even New Mexico, right in our own backyard."

"And today has been the first case in which they were discovered alive?" Ron asked shockingly.

"Yes," Dr. Bishop responded, nodding to reinforce it. "It was an absolute miracle that these creatures were discovered alive. Obviously it wasn't too good for the dig team, but from a scientific standpoint, this is a major breakthrough that has presented itself. Never before have we been able to understand these creature's behavior, their actions and personalities as a group."

"And that's what you plan to do with those two newborns that you have in the back room?" Danny asked before he scoffed. "This is just great, a cover-up is what you guys are planning here," he accused them all. "This is just like some giant, other worldly, alien cover-up by the government," he laughed to himself before he became serious again. "Those things need to be destroyed!" he shouted angrily.

"And they will be just after we've had time to learn a little more about them," Dr. Bishop tried to reassure him. "This is too grave an opportunity to throw away."

"Where in Washington do you believe you will be able to more closely examine those things?" Jazz asked suspiciously. "Once we get off this plane, rumors will begin to spread, people will want answers as to what happened to Kim and the rest of her dig team. This is too big for the government to keep under wraps in just one night," she said doubtfully. "Unless…unless you've already started the cover-up," she whispered to herself.

"The explosion," Danny realized, bringing everyone's attention to him. "That wasn't just to eradicate those things was it?" he asked, his temper rising. "You people are trying to cover your tracks, cover up some kind of conspiracy or something!" he said with rage.

"Those creatures are probably another one of those mythological things that they are trying to keep out of the public's eye," Danielle growled. "That's why we've never heard of them before today; we're just the poor saps that make the discovery of a lifetime and it's people like you that take the credit after wiping our minds clean, making sure that no one else finds out about it all."

"Aliens," Ron suddenly blurted, catching everyone's attention. "Creatures that no one has seen before, they aren't of this world and the government is trying to cover them up so they can do further research on them," he explained his reasoning. "It all fits."

"Now, kids," President Obama said calmly, standing from his chair with hands raised to put them at ease. "You're accusations are getting too out of hand here."

"Too out of hand!" Danny snapped. "Did you even see what that thing did to Kim's professor! Did you see what it almost did to her! I know you didn't see what we saw underground, what they did to the others. You haven't got a clue as to what these things are capable of. Our accusations seem reasonably justified in my opinion."

"I don't think I wanna fly on this plane anymore," Danielle half yelled angrily. "I feel like they're gunna take us to Area 51 or something and wipe our minds clean," she said with frustration. "Not only that, but they need a place to take those things where they can be safe from the prying eyes of the public…don't you?" she asked curiously, a desire to know the truth burning in her eyes. "After all, that is where you took those aliens that crashed in Arizona back in the 40's."

"Alright," President Obama said, getting up from his chair. "I must draw the line here. I can personally assure you kids you're in no danger of having your minds wiped," he attempted to reassure them, but they only glowered at him. "As for everything else, believe me when I tell you that there are no such things as aliens, and that Area 51…just does not exist," he said calmly as he approached the teens.

"Umm, that's not entirely accurate sir," Dr. Bishop spoke up.

All eyes bulged and went to him, mouths were gaped slightly and flaring tempers had been extinguished. "Excuse me," President Obama growled. "What do you mean 'that's not entirely accurate' Frank?"

"I mean, there is an area 51," he explained himself. "And, the child is unfortunately right about the incident at Roswell," he added reluctantly.

"Why have I never been informed of any of this?" President Obama asked angrily. "I'm the president! I should know whether or not some secret base is housing ancient aliens!"

"That information was not to be disclosed," Dr. Bishop replied sheepishly. "It was a need to know basis and you didn't need to know."

"Didn't need to know!" President Obama snapped, shocking everyone in the room. "It is a serious matter of National Security to have such dangerous alien creatures locked away." It was at this point that he looked passed the bewildered teens to his head secret service agent. "Mark, tell the captain to change course," he requested the agent who nodded before leaving through a side door to go speak with the captain.

"But sir!" the African American Secret Service Agent shouted in shock. "You can't possibly be insisting-?" he was about to ask before the President interrupted him.

"Yes John, I am," he responded harshly. "We're no longer heading for Washington," he said. The four teens all looked at each other with surprised expressions. "Our new destination is of course…Area 51," he said as the scene zoomed in on his eyes as he squinted them to seem more serious.

* * *

From out of the darkness, the large military plane flew through a moonlit cloud as it descended towards a brightly lit runway in the middle of the desert. The wheels lowered from their compartments and the plane landed on the tarmac before coming to a complete stop next to a single large warehouse that would have been just large enough to house the large plane.

The view blackened before a series of large metallic doors began to slide to the sides, a bright light flooded between the opening in the doors, blinding anyone careless enough to watch the doors opening. As the opening widened, several people stood in the light, casting long shadows across the ground. They started to walk inside after the doors had finished widening to their set point, they could have gone wider to get the plane in but it stayed outside on the tarmac.

"Ahh, Mr. President," a shaggy scientist greeted the silhouetted character at the front of the group. He and two other scientists, one short and stubby, the other tall and lanky, all stopped and waited for the President and the others behind him to approach them. "It is an honor to have you here sir," he said with a bowed nod. "I'm Dr. Dominic Fasser, but you can call me Dom," he introduced himself as he shook hands with the highly respected man.

"Special Agent Mark Sullivan, Director of the US Secret Service," the gray haired secret service agent introduced himself as he shook hands with the scientist. "And this is Special Agent John Whitmore," he said introducing the African-American secret service agent to his side.

"So, to what do we owe this honor?" Dr. Fasser asked curiously after he was done shaking hands with the three men.

A pale man Mr. Fasser, he had long white shaggy hair and a dark five o' clock shadow. He wore glasses that hung on a chain around his neck. He wore a lengthy white lab coat, a dark green sweater underneath and black denim jeans with dark brown shoes that clacked across the floor as he walked.

President Obama turned and snapped his fingers at two of his unnamed secret service agents who came up on either side of him. "You can show us where you keep the others that are just like these two," he said, indicating two large sheet covered jars the secret service agents were carrying.

They removed the sheets to reveal that within the confines of the glass jars were the two creatures, one at least twice as large as before and the other three times or possibly even four times larger. Both were now beginning to develop black armor like the others instead of the pink flesh that was once exposed. The two creatures screeched and the larger one even banged its head against the glass with enough force to cause it to crack.

The three scientists were absolutely awestruck by the creatures. "Incredible," Dom gaped. "Two of the creatures alive and well, and still in infant form," he observed as he put his face right up to the glass of the smaller creature. It opened its mouth and snapped its tongue at him, the miniature mouth bouncing off the inside of the glass without so much as a scratch. Dom jumped back after being startled but recovered. "This is certainly a first," he added with amazement.

"Dom?" President Obama said to catch the man's attention. He failed to look up from the glass and continued to examine the creatures. "Where are the others?" he asked, growing frustrated with the man.

"Truly magnificent specimens," Dom whispered. "We must get them into containment," he advised the two other scientists behind him, both of whom shared his interest in the creatures. "Excellent work here Frank," he congratulated Dr. Bishop who stood by the president's side, still not re-acknowledging his presence. Dr. Bishop didn't thank him, he just looked away sheepishly.

"Mr. Fasser!" General Mills shouted from the president's other side. He was still in full camo and still held his M16. Dom looked up at him and his expression told that he had only just noticed him. "As a General of the United States Army, I'm ordering you to answer the President's question," he ordered him. Dom eyed the machine gun in his hands and looked back up at the president with un-wavered determination.

President Obama scowled at the man and folded his arms in waiting for a response. "Why yes, of course," he nodded as the two scientists took hold of the jars and walked away into the bunker before they disappeared behind locked doors. "We have them, here, underground," he finally answered. "They are kept within containment, behind lock and key. Safeguarded from…"

"I want to see them," President Obama interrupted him, not caring what kind of safeguards had been put in place to keep them secret.

"Oh but sir, I-" Dom stuttered.

"NOW!" President Obama snapped at him.

Dom looked from him to General Mills as his grip on his M16 tightened. He then looked towards Special Agent Sullivan as his hand rested on the bulge under his suit jacket. Next he looked at Special Agent Whitmore as he too lay his hand over the bulge under his suit jacket. He looked back at the president as anger and frustration from him burned into his being.

"Y-Yes, of-of course," Dom stuttered nervously. "This way," he said, turning and scooting away with President Obama, Dr. Bishop, and the four secret agents close behind.

"Go back to the plane and make sure the kids flying vehicle is unloaded so they can use it to go home when we're done here," General Mills ordered two of his men. "And make sure the plane is refueled so we can get out of here as well. We could be here a while, but I want that thing ready to go ASAP."

"Right away General," one of the soldiers said as they both saluted him. General Mills turned to catch up with the others as the other two turned and sprinted back out through the open double doors as Danny and Danielle made their way inside.

"I can't believe this place is real," Danielle gasped in awe upon taking in the site of the near empty aircraft storage area. It was large enough to hold the plane they came in but was currently being used to store a small caravan of military vehicles; two jeeps, a heavily armored SUV's and even a tank.

"Just keep your eyes peeled," Danny advised her. He wasn't as fascinated by this place as she was, he was more cautious. "I've got a really bad feeling about this place growing in the back of my mind." They both turned around when they heard the footsteps of three people coming up behind them.

Ron and Jazz were holding Kim by her hands as she slowly made her way into the large bunker. She was able to walk under her own power, but she needed the other two to keep her balance. High on painkillers, her eyes were bloodshot red and she scowled into oblivion with unblinking eyes. The rest of her ghost hunting suit had been taken off, although she was still wearing her shorts from her dig site uniform. She was still shirtless, only the bandage wrappings keeping herself concealed.

"You look awful," Danielle declared with a tilt of the head.

Kim shot a deathly glare at the girl and snarled at her. "Easy sis," Ron said to calm her. "You know she's just kidding," he reassured her.

"She's on heavy painkillers," Jazz informed her younger siblings as they followed after the others to the back of the bunker. "So she probably has no control over her actions right now," she warned. "She also might not have any memory of what's going on right now."

"You couldn't just leave her on the plane?" Danny asked curiously. "She'll be safer there and we are going back."

"Well, she refused to be left behind," Ron said, his hands holding his sister's to prevent her from falling as she stumbled on her feet. "We told her she was in no condition to walk but-"

"No," Kim grunted, interrupting her brother. "I wanna see the thing that almost killed me face to face," she declared before she forced herself free of his and Jazz' grasps before she stumbled passed Danny and Danielle under her own power. The four other teens exchanged worried looks before they followed her.

She stumbled on her feet again and they had to catch her, but she pushed them off after they had her rebalanced. She continued under her own power until she reached the back of the bunker where the men were already waiting in an elevator. She grabbed onto the open door and pulled herself in before spinning around and whamming into the side wall of the elevator car.

"Argh!" she grunted through barred teeth as the pain of slamming into the wall sent a sudden shock throughout her torso.

"Are you ok kid?" Dom asked her curiously. She opened her eyes and shot daggers at him, the harshness of her gaze striking enough fear into not only him but the others as well to make them jump in hesitation as the four other teens stepped into the elevator car. The door closed before re-opening on a lower level. "The basement level is where we keep everything," Dom said, introducing the scene before them.

Upon stepping off the elevator was a room with glass walls and an open cupboard off to one side. In it hung several white hazmat suits, the same kind dozens of people on the other side of the glass were wearing. On the far side of the room on the glass were two closed doors below a bio-hazard symbol that warned visitors to sanitize themselves before they entered.

"Before we enter, we must all don one of these hazmat suits," Dom advised them all as he went for the cupboard and removed one of the suits.

"Open the doors Mr. Fasser," President Obama ordered him in a calm tone.

"But sir, we have to keep the area clean or we risk contamination," Dom tried to argue back reluctantly.

"I said, OPEN THE DOORS!" President Obama repeated himself angrily.

"Ugh…ok, yes sir," he responded sheepishly.

He scuffled himself away from the cupboard and towards a keypad next to the door. He typed a series of numbers into it before stepping away. Suddenly a green light enveloped the entire room as they were all individually scanned. "Access Denied," a robotic voice called out when the scan was complete.

Mr. Fasser sighed and raised his hands up briefly before dropping them to his side. "It won't let anyone in until we've all been decontaminated," he explained.

President Obama was about to retaliate against him but Kim pushed her way passed them all and approached the keypad. She punched the keypad with enough force to shatter the display screen and pulled the computer circuitry out, sending off sparks as the glass doors slid aside to allow them access. The pain killers suppressing any pain she would have felt, she would be feeling a cramp in her hand when they wore off. She scowled at Mr. Fasser who sighed with grief.

"Welcome," he said to the others as he motioned with his hand through the now opened door. "To the illustrious…Area 51."

Before them was a long lobby with dozens of people working at large tables while they worked on odd experiments. One woman was mixing chemicals in beakers while an assistant poured them into molds. Finished molds sat to the side with strange metallic materials sitting in plastic dishes. At another table, a man was busy wrapping copper coils around metallic rods. At another table another man was charging them with electricity to make magnets.

As Dr. Fasser led them through the center of the room to the other end where another door waited for them, they passed by a man and a woman as they experimented with what looked like a miniature arc reactor that gave off a bright green glow. What caught Danielle's interest was a woman who maneuvered a metallic baseball sized orb between her hands. She didn't have to touch it; she wore magnets that were strapped around her hands so the ball appeared to be levitating as she examined her little experiment.

They exited the brightly lit room and entered a less brightly lit hallway that split off to the left and the right as well as forward. Dr. Fasser led them to the left, past numerous doors that led to smaller rooms such as individual offices, storage rooms, restrooms, etc. and around a corner before immediately entering into a massive chamber.

The chamber, longer than several football fields was about two-hundred feet from floor to ceiling and they stood on a balcony about one-hundred and seventy-five feet above the floor. A series of twisting metal stairs off to the side allowed for users to reach the bottom level. The reason for the large chamber, it housed a very large ship with many rounded edges. It stood on five large struts; the front was the largest section and was connected to two slightly smaller sections at the back by further struts. Neither windows nor any other point of entry could be immediately seen.

"Is this what I think it is!" Jazz asked in amazement, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head. Everyone else with the exception of Kim who still expressed an angered attitude, simply gawked at the size of the massive space craft.

"Yup," Dr. Fasser answered with a nod of his head. "Amazing isn't she?" he asked the group. "My father is the one who had the hardest time getting this big girl in here," he tempted them with a simple explanation as to how it got here.

"Is this what crashed in Roswell?" General Mills asked, still in complete awe.

"Yup," Dr. Fasser answered, again with a nod of his head. "She stayed relatively intact too, on the outside at least; the inside is a complete wreck. The thing still works just fine," he added with a chuckle. "She can't fly worth a dam anymore but her power source is still intact."

"What about its inhabitance, Dom?" President Obama asked him. "I'm not gunna ask you again," he said, his frustration with the man's stalling continuing to grow. "Show us where you keep those dam things," he ordered him.

"Yes M-Mr. President," he nodded with a stutter. "We keep them with the rest of the collection; right this way," he ushered them as he maneuvered around them and went for an open doorway off to the right side of the balcony.

"What kind of collection is it?" Special Agent Sullivan asked.

"Interesting artifacts that we recovered from within the ship as well as fossilized creatures from many locations across the globe," Dr. Fasser answered. They entered into a long show room with many objects displayed behind thick sheets of glass. Items included high tech pieces of circuitry, display panels and control switches; all of which had been ripped from the inside of the ship. "This big guy was found in Ancient China," Dr. Fasser said as they came to one of the creatures that had been fossilized in a standing position. "We estimate it to be over five-thousand years old," he informed them matter-of-factly.

He led the others on, but Kim remained behind and stared up at the creature as it appeared to look down at her. She scowled up at the creature and her breathing started to deepen as Jazz came back and grabbed her by her hand. "Common, let's stay with the group," she suggested as she pulled her friend back towards the others.

As they observed everything they passed, something caught their attention. Sitting on an open display case was a green cube about one foot cubed in size. It glowed with a brilliant intensity and set off sparks in areas where wires had been attached to it. Danny and Danielle approached it with curiosity as Dr. Fasser came up beside them. "This was the power source I told you kids about," he told them. "It was found in the ship's control room. We've tinkered around with it and now it powers everything in this entire base."

"What is it?" Danielle asked curiously, although she already had a pretty good idea what it may have been.

"We don't really know," Dr. Fasser answered. "It's composed of an element that doesn't exist in the known world. It's some sort of space rock and it serves as a tremendous power source as I've just told you. As a result it is quite warm to the touch but perfectly safe to handle."

Drawn in by curiosity, Danny reached out and put his hand on it before receiving a heavy shock that spread throughout his body. "YAAAAH!" he screamed before he pulled his hand away as it let off a light green mist.

"Ohh, there might be an exposed wire," Dr. Fasser concluded as he examined the glowing green stone. "Sorry about that," he apologized, clearly not knowing the true reason why it shocked him.

Danny examined his hand as the light green mist dissipated leaving behind a small burn mark in his palm. "It's called Ecto-ranium dude," he informed the scientist. "An anti-ghost element that can only be found in the deep reaches of space."

"Ecto-What?" Dr. Fasser questioned. He was confused by this terminology. "Never heard of such an element. How does a kid come across this information?" he asked.

"You've never heard of Ecto-ranium?" Danielle asked him, possibly even more confused than he was. "Where on Earth have you been in the last several months?" she asked him with a sarcastic sneer.

"Right here," Dr. Fasser answered her matter-of-factly. "I'm only one of dozens of scientists here that haven't been above ground in twenty years," he informed the girl. "We don't read the news, or listen to the radio or watch TV, we just experiment with the artifacts we've gathered from the ship, and believe me, there's a lot of things to work on down here."

"Well you should get out into the sunlight sometime," Special Agent Sullivan advised him. "More than a year ago an entire asteroid made of this stuff almost collided with the planet," he informed the scientist.

"I should have guessed this stuff was Ecto-ranium," Danny said to Danielle who nodded in agreement. "It hurt the first time I touched the stuff, you'd think I would've learned my lesson by now."

"Wait, so this stuff hurts you?" Dr. Fasser asked curiously. "How is that possible? It's not radioactive or anything, it should be harmless to humans."

"My sister and I are only half human?" Danny informed him. "Being underground for so long you've obviously never heard of us, otherwise you would have recognized us when we came in."

"What do you mean son?" Dr. Fasser asked. "How can you only be half human? That's just not possible." Then to his surprise, one large ring of light appeared around the two Phantom siblings and they transformed into their ghost forms right before his eyes. "Are my eyes deceiving me?" he asked himself with amazement. "Perfect fusions between human and the paranormal. You're telling me that the outside world knows about this?" he asked them.

"Without them and their powers, this world would have been destroyed on more than one occasion Dom," President Obama informed him.

"You really need to get out more man," Special Agent Whitmore mocked him.

"Duly noted," Dr. Fasser replied as he squinted at the man.

"So Dom, when exactly are we gunna get to see the crowning jewel of this facility?" General Mills asked as he raised his weapon and rested it firmly across his shoulder.

"Yes, we aren't interested in the alien artifacts," Special Agent Sullivan added. "We're interested in the aliens themselves."

"Actually, we were just getting to them," Dr. Fasser informed them with a smile as he held up a finger and pointed it towards the ceiling. He turned and led them passed a few more objects in display cases; mostly just ordinary space rocks and oddly shaped sheets of metal twisted and contorted beyond human recognition.

At the other end of the display room was another door, this one shut and locked, requiring a numerical pass code to get in. This room didn't have as many restrictions as the very first door, so they were all allowed right in without a drug hardened Kim having to bust them in. The door slid up and into the ceiling before they entered the room and were faced with even more display cases. These ones were tall and cylindrical and filled with murky yellow water. Inside the first few cylindrical water filled display cases were hatched and un-hatched alien eggs. One even had an egg that had been dissected in half after it had been hatched open.

Everyone spread out to look within the display cases, but Jazz took the display case with the dissected egg into particular interest. "Were these all really found on the ship?" she asked whomever walked up behind her; she assumed it was one of the adults and she was correct.

"You are correct little lady," Dr. Fasser said joyfully as he walked up to her side. "Some found hatched and un-hatched. This one in particular was dissected by Dr. Bishop so we could learn more about how they reproduced," he informed her as he knocked on the glass with one finger. He looked up from a display case with an un-hatched egg upon hearing his name and turned away to draw attention away from himself.

"But if some of them were hatched, then that must mean that some of those things were running around before they were killed in the crash," she theorized. "So, where are they?" she asked.

Kim, walking off on her own with her brother in short pursuit to make sure she didn't hurt herself, walked past several more display cases with eggs before she turned and came face to face with one of the smaller scorpion-like creatures. "YAAAAH!" she screamed in terror as she jumped back into her brother's arms and grabbed for her chest in agony.

"Easy sis," he comforted her as her breathing slowed down. "I think we found what you were looking for Jazz!" he called out to her.

The others had already come running when they heard Kim scream; when they arrived they were met with the same surprise when they ran into the water filled display case with a dead scorpion-like creature floating inside. "Whoa!" General Mills gasped, his weapon coming off his shoulder and into a firing position. "Déjà vu," he said as he lowered his weapon; apparently he'd been surprised by a few of these things himself back at the temple.

"And so we come to the second stage," Dr. Fasser said with a joyful smile, he and Dr. Bishop being the only ones not surprised by the dead creature. "The 'Face-huggers' hatch from the eggs as most of you probably know by now," he asserted.

"They attach to the face and implant the third stage, the Chest-burster, into the chest through the mouth and air passages," Dr. Bishop clarified. "When they are done implanting, they fall off, curl-up and die, and depending on the host's health, the gestation period could be as little as a few hours to an entire day, if not longer."

"We don't have any fossilized or preserved remains of this third form," Dr. Fasser informed the group. "You're the only ones to have seen it and lived to tell about it," he informed them all. "She's lucky you were able to remove it in time," he said, indicating Kim by pointing to her.

She couldn't take her eyes off the creature behind the glass. The last time she saw one it was attaching itself to her face. Her eyes burned with a red hot fury, her teeth clenched shut and her face turned beat red with anger. She snarled through her teeth and shot daggers at the creature, her anger rising to the point where steam could almost be seen coming out of her ears. It took Jazz and Ron grabbing onto her hands firmly to calm her down.

"After the 'Chest-burster' stage they enter the first half of their final stage," Dr. Fasser informed them as he led the group passed the display cases and led them deeper into the room where the back wall was darkened. "They develop into their adult forms quickly, typically within a matter of hours, shedding away their skin as they grow. In their final adult forms, their skin has hardened into a tough armor that is hard to penetrate, but with enough force they are easily killed."

"Four adult aliens were found aboard the ship when it crash landed in the 40's," Dr. Bishop began to alliterate for the group. He stopped walking towards the darkened wall and put his hands into his pockets as the group came up beside him. Dr. Fasser went to the wall where a control panel with numerous buttons waited for him. "These three didn't survive the crash," he said as he pointed towards the darkened wall.

Dr. Fasser pushed a big green button on the control panel and three big lights high on the ceiling turned on. Each light was positioned over large cylindrical display cases about ten feet high each. Each was filled with the same murky yellow water and housed three of the adult forms of the exact same creatures they fought off back at the temple.

Black armor covering their skeletal bodies, elongated heads without eyes, and long spine-like tails with razor sharp barbs on the tips. They all died in the positions they were holding when their ship crashed; trying to use their arms and tails to shield themselves from flying debris, all to no avail.

* * *

Back outside on the surface, the military plane was being refueled for its return journey to Washington all the while the cargo bay was being unloaded. A tow truck was being used to pull the now fully repaired Specter Speeder out and onto the tarmac while soldiers supervised. The soldiers followed the tow truck and the Fenton's flying vehicle out of view as another soldier descended a ladder from the plane's left wing.

"Hey Jeff!" he called out into the night in the direction of the plane's right wing. "Hey Jeff!" he called out again when he didn't get a response. "You almost done fueling over there?" Still no one responded. "Hey Jimmy!" he called out to another soldier standing near the plane's tail. "Have you seen Jeff?" he asked him.

"Yeah, he was checking out the front wheel," Jimmy responded to him. "He could probably use some help Marty," he suggested.

"I'll help him alright, I'll help him shove my foot up his…Ahh, forget it," he grunted before he stomped off towards the front of the plane. "Where you at Jeff?" he called out as he approached the front wheel. "Jeff?" he called out when he didn't see anyone around. He looked down towards the ground and noticed a magnum sitting on the tarmac next to the wheel. He picked it up slowly and discovered that it was coated in a slimy liquid. "YUK!" he said with disgust as he dropped the weapon. He shook his hand as something growled in the night. He looked up towards the open hatch of the front wheel well and screamed.

A panned out view of the front wheel showed Marty being pulled up into the wheel well, screaming all the way until bones were heard cracking and his screams fell silent.

* * *

"But wait, where's the fourth one?" Danny asked curiously. "What happened to it?" he added a second question to the first.

Dr. Fasser pushed another button on the control panel and stepped away from the wall before it split and slid to the sides, separating the display case on the right from the two on the left. After the wall had opened nearly ten feet, a fourth display case slid forward into the empty space. At nearly twenty feet tall it was also filled with the same murky yellow water and contained the dead remains of an absolutely tremendous creature, dwarfing all the others. It was curled up to fit in the tank; it had a large flat crest that stuck out like a large shield to protect its head. Unlike the other creatures, this larger one had a smaller pair of inner arms that protruded from the sides of its chest. It was an alien queen.

"She survived the crash," Dr. Bishop told them as they arched their heads back and gawked in awe at the size of the creature. "But just barely. She was captured by soldiers stationed at Roswell and died shortly thereafter in captivity from wounds sustained in the crash."

"She became separated from her ovipositor in the crash, it was too damaged so was never recovered," Dr. Fasser informed them.

"The ovi-what?" Ron asked in confusion, raising an eyebrow.

"The egg laying portion of the termite queen," Danny answered as he folded his arms, not taking his eyes off the alien queen in the display tank. The four other teens looked at him with shock.

"How exactly do you know that?" Danielle asked him.

"Ugh…the internet?" he stuttered nervously.

"Well in any case, he is correct," Dr. Fasser continued. "My father was charged with the task of taking the ship and all of its contents and hiding them deep within Area 51, which at the time was nothing more than a military installation," he explained.

"They chose this place because it was the only one with an underground bunker large enough to house everything away from the prying eyes of the public," Dr. Bishop further explained.

It was while they were explaining this that Kim took an even larger interest in the queen's tank. She wasn't looking at the queen though; she was taking an interest in the reflection of something in the glass of the display cylinder. She turned around and her eyes bugged out as her mouth dropped open.

"What's up?" Jazz asked, taking notice of Kim's reaction. The drugs had given her a hardened personality as of resent, but whatever she saw had gotten through her toughened exterior. She turned to see what had gotten under Kim's skin and she was overcome with the same reaction. Her eyes bugged and her mouth dropped open. "It can't be," she gawked.

This caught everyone else's attention. Danny and Danielle turned around and they too shared the same startled expressions. Ron, President Obama and General Mills turned around and gawked at what they saw. "Impossible," Ron managed to say as his gaze went upwards toward the ceiling. The four secret agents followed their gazes up, their eyes widening as they looked across the room and towards the ceiling.

A view from above the alien tanks looked down on them before panning up as a giant metal arch came into view. At nearly thirty feet across, it sat against the far wall across the room from the aliens sitting on display in their glass tubes. It sat in a pit about five feet lower than the floor they were standing on. It was also raised up on struts another five feet high, a long ramp led from the middle of the pit up to the bottom opening of the arch. They wouldn't have recognized it had it not been for a much smaller version sitting inside another glass display case.

The Fenton Proto-Portal from Jack and Maddie's college days was sitting inside the display case at the base of the larger arch, a much larger proto-portal than they've ever seen.

"Ahh, she's a beauty ain't she?" Dr. Fasser asked the group. Danny and Danielle ran down the steps and into the pit before splitting up, Danny ran up the ramp and went to the larger portal while Danielle went for the proto-portal. "The queen was found inside, hanging from the bottom of it after the crash. I call it, a Ghost Portal," he declared brilliantly.

"For years we couldn't figure out how it worked," Dr. Bishop elaborated. "So back in the 80's, we took the basic designs and gave them to three engineering students of ours at the University of Wisconsin."

"Jack, Madeline and Vladimir I believe their names were," Dr. Fasser said, reminiscing back more than two decades. The five teens all exchanged surprised expressions as he continued. "Terrific students," he implied. "They used the designs and created the smaller proto-portal as they called it. It didn't work of course and one of them was severely harmed when it was activated, but it led the way for us to figure out the workings of the larger version and we have finally managed to activate it recently."

"You guys have access to the ghost zone?" Jazz asked as she glared at the man.

"If that's what you kids call it?" Dr. Fasser responded. "I'm not at all surprised you know about this technology; it's the only device whose blueprints have been seen outside of this facility."

"And duplicated," Danny half shouted. "At least two other ghost portals exist," he informed the scientist.

"Ugh, three actually," General Mills corrected him. "We've got one in the basement of the Pentagon." All five teens shot angered glares at him as they waited for an explanation. "The guys in white recovered plans decades ago, long before they were a major operation, our funding from that gave them enough incentive to become the governmental organization that they are today."

"But, why?" Danielle asked as if pleading for an answer.

"Well they offered Congress a really good deal and it was really hard to turn down," Special Agent Sullivan answered.

"No, I meant, why did you guys need to build one in the first place?" Danielle rephrased her question.

"When the Russians built one we needed to prove that we were capable of owning such technology as well," General Mills answered her question after she re-asked it.

"An arms race?" Jazz asked sarcastically as she cocked an eyebrow and folded her arms. "You guys planned on using our families invention as a weapon!" she yelled with frustration, her once folded arms now straightened to her sides as she curled her hands into tightly clenched fists.

"Well that was the idea," General Mills responded, quite startled by the college girls show of anger. "But after theirs didn't work and blew up in their faces we had no need for it, it remains unfinished and abandoned in the Pentagon's basement to this very day."

"It blew up?" Ron asked. "How did they cover that up? Portal explosions are equivalent to nearly a ton of TNT going off. An explosion that big had to make the news," he figured.

"And you're right, it did," President Obama said matter-of fact'ly. "The town of 'Chernobyl'," he said with emphasis. "Hasn't been the same ever since."

"But I thought that was a power plant explosion?" Danielle asked curiously.

"They needed a tremendous amount of energy to power the arch portal," Special Agent Whitmore answered her. "They kept it in a bunker under the main reactor and when they activated it, the resulting explosion set off a chain of events that led to the deaths of many people and the evacuation of the entire neighboring towns."

"Can I intervene here?" Dr. Bishop interrupted their questioning of each other. "But I've gotta take you back a few steps here. How exactly did the plans for the arch portal get out into the world?" Then he turned towards the teens. "And you mentioned that your family has a working portal, how is that possible?"

"Well they built it from blueprints of course," Danny said mockingly as he folded his arms.

"But how?" Dr. Fasser asked, jumping into the questioning. "I might be able to understand how the government got their hands on the blueprints for the machine, but who could have given your parents the idea for a ghost portal?" he asked them.

"UGH, YOU DID!" everyone except the two scientists said, startling the men.

"What!" Dr. Fasser responded, completely flabbergasted by such an insinuation. "How? When?" he asked.

"The University of Wisconsin in the 80's," Danielle began to elaborate. "Your students, our parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton and their uncle Vlad Masters-" she said, pointing at Kim and Ron standing behind him. "Built THAT!" she half yelled as she pointed at the proto-portal not ten feet from where she was standing. "Under your supervision none the less," she added quite frankly.

"And FYI," Kim said smugly to catch his attention. He turned and looked at her as shock began to spread across his face. "That proto-portal accident that harmed our uncle, also gave him ghost powers, just like these two," she informed him as she pointed between the two Phantom siblings.

Dr. Fasser and Dr. Bishop were too shocked to stand upright. They both fell to the floor and sat upright as they registered all that they had just heard. "We really do need to get out more," Dr. Fasser sighed as he shook his head with disbelief.

"I do get out more than you and I'm still just as shocked as you," Dr. Bishop sighed with grief as he too shook his head from side to side.

"The world has changed a lot in the last few decades gentlemen," President Obama said to break the silence after no one said a word for a few moments. "I'm America's first black president," he reminded them. "I'm living proof. I've brought change to this world we live in. Change is always happening."

The five teens couldn't help but palm-face themselves as they tried to hide their laughter, managing to hide it within a few snickers. His reference to his political campaign was just too uncanny.

"But that still brings up my next big question for the two of you," he added as they all looked at him. "If we allow those two creatures we brought with us to stay here, how can we be so certain that they can't escape?" he asked them. "Because if they break free and get to the surface, all life on the planet could be in danger," he reminded them, although surely they didn't need to be reminded of the ramifications of keeping such dangerous creatures under lock and key.

"They are safely locked away in chambers too thick for their bodily weapons or corrosive blood to penetrate," Dr. Fasser reassured him. "They can't break free under their own power."

"Show me," President Obama challenged him.

* * *

"TAKE THEM DOWN! TAKE THEM DOWN!" a soldier screamed as he fired his M16. He and several other soldiers were out on the tarmac, standing guard to the bunker that led underground. They fired away at unseen forces as the highest ranking standing in the middle yelled into a walkie talkie.

"WILL SOMEONE ANSWER!" he yelled into the walkie talkie over the hail of gunfire around him.

"SIR," one of the soldiers standing next to him yelled over the gun fire. "I don't think the General gets a signal underground!" he yelled. "No radio signals in or out! Otherwise, it wouldn't be all that secret!"

"Everyone, cease fire!" the man in the middle yelled over the gunfire. Everyone stopped firing their weapons and everything went silent…too silent. The view turned and looked out over the tarmac with the plane and the Specter Speeder far off in the distance. A small spot a short distance out was riddled with bullet holes and fragments where they had been firing. "Where'd they go?" he asked in a frightened tone.

He and the four soldiers began to panic amongst themselves as they looked around nervously. Unfortunately, they weren't looking up. Two spine-like tails descended behind them and stabbed two of them men through their backs before pulling them up and out of view. The three others screamed and aimed their weapons up, but two more were stabbed by the same tails and lifted out of view, leaving the man in the middle to stand alone.

"ARGH! DIE YOU UGLY MOTHER-!" he yelled with a fury as he fired his weapon straight up into the air over his head. He only stopped firing when an alien creature dropped in on top of him, knocking his gun and his radio out of his hands and pinning him to the tarmac. It stepped on his head and turned it with its foot, a cracking noise indicating that his neck had been broken.

It screeched loudly into the night over its easy victory before a second alien creature dropped down onto the tarmac in front of it and screeched in a slightly different tone. The first jumped back off the dead man's body before screeching back at its comrade. They both turned and ran through the open door to the bunker and stopped next to each other a short distance inside before they screeched in unison. They cocked their heads at what they saw before them.

Three men had blocked their entrance into the rest of the bunker; two on either side of them and one directly in front, all three of them held flamethrowers and had them aimed directly at the two creatures. "Burn in Hell," the man directly in front of them cursed in a whisper before all three of them unleashed the flames of fury onto their enemy.

The two creatures screeched and disappeared in the massive ball of flames that had accumulated between the three men. With nowhere else to escape to, the creatures ran back out through the bunker door as it began to slide shut. The three men only ceased their fire power after the thick metal door had been closed tight and locked securely.

"There, that oughta keep them out for a little while," one of the soldiers sighed with relief as he wiped sweat away from his brow.

"But sir, those things must be captured or killed," a second soldier said, still horrified from the experience. "They're too dangerous to be wandering around outside, they could kill innocent people!"

"That may be so," the first answered calmly before he looked the man right in his eyes with a stern look. "But they are trying to get inside; and these doors won't hold them back for long, they'll find a way inside."

"Well then we've gotta warn the president," the third soldier advised. "We have to get him out of here!"

The first took a moment to think this over before he nodded his head towards the back of the bunker. "Into the elevator," he advised the other two before they took off towards the back of the bunker and jumped onto the elevator car and slowly began their descent to the underground basement below.

Back outside on the roof of the bunker, the alien creatures had climbed the outside wall and were now scurrying across the roof as they looked for a way inside. Their search came to an end when they came across an air duct that jutted out. They ran on all fours to the air duct and listened intently as the echoes of another alien creature screeched from within the air duct.

They both screeched before one of them punctured the metal grating covering the entrance to the air duct and threw it aside. They both then jumped through the opening and crawled their way down inside the air duct until they came to an opening that dropped off into a long dark shaft. They dropped in and grabbed hold of several cables that were moving either up or down as the elevator they were connected to slowly descended.

They both screeched, echoing all the way to the bottom of the elevator shaft, before one of them jumped off the inside wall of the shaft and landed on the roof of the descending elevator car. From within, the three soldiers jumped when startled by the sound of something landing on the roof of the elevator.

They looked up and aimed their guns, they had swapped their flamethrowers for M16's, towards the ceiling, expecting something to come through it, but instead they were blindsided when the creature's spine-like tail punctured through the side of the car and pinned one of the soldiers against the wall of the elevator, shattering the glass on the wall and staining it red with his blood.

"YAAAH!" they all screamed in shock, but the soldier that had been stabbed was in mortal pain. The other two soldiers opened fire on the creature's tail, but it did no good when it retracted its tail and pulled the soldier with it. His screams fell silent as he was pulled through the small, razor sharp hole in the wall, bloodied torn clothing clinging to shards of metal inside the hole. "YAAAH!" the two soldiers screamed in terror and in fury as they began shooting wildly towards the ceiling.

The creature on the roof of the elevator car screeched as bullets whizzed by it. It leapt off the car and grabbed onto the inside wall of the shaft and hung there as the elevator continued its descent. The two soldiers were still firing off rounds that ascended the shaft and ricochet off the cables and walls.

The other creature crawled down the wall of the shaft until it was equal with its comrade and screeched at it. It wound up its tail and plunged it forward, the razor sharp tip slicing through each of the cables supporting the elevator. With nothing holding the elevator car, gravity took control when the cables snapped and the elevator car began a much faster descent.

"Waa!" the soldiers exclaimed as their feet lifted off the floor and they rose towards the ceiling. "ARGH!" they screamed with terror as they became pancaked to the ceiling. The view changed to the point of view from the bottom of the elevator as it rapidly approached the bottom of the shaft.

All of the scientists working in the lobby room where sent into a state of shock and panic when the elevator door exploded into a ball of flames. The metal elevator door was propelled through the air, shattering the glass separating the two rooms, sending shards of glass raining down onto dozens of petrified scientists. The two alien creatures screeched as the flames from the resulting explosion flashed below them in the background of the elevator shaft.

* * *

A door slid to the side and President Obama was the first to enter a brightly lit white room, followed closely behind by his four secret service agents, who were followed by General Mills and the two doctors, with the five teens staggering in behind them. Danny and Danielle stood in front while Jazz and Ron continued to help a wobbly Kim stand upright, although she seemed back to her normal self otherwise.

Inside the brightly lit room, the two scientists that had accompanied Dr. Fasser in the bunker when they first arrived stood looking through a pane of glass as something was heard moving around inside hysterically. They looked up and were overjoyed to see Dr. Fasser and Dr. Bishop, not even taking notice of the others at first.

"Mr. President, you've already met Mr. Barry and Mr. Fitzgerald," Dr. Fasser said introducing them to each other as they shook hands. Mr. Barry introduced himself as the tall and lanky scientist from earlier while Mr. Fitzgerald introduced himself as the short and stubby scientist. "Now, about those specimens they brought here with them?" Dr. Fasser inquired.

"Ahh yes," Mr. Fitzgerald said with amusement. "We have them safely in captivity and we've already learned a great deal about them in the last hour," he informed his boss. "Please come," he ushered them as he and Mr. Barry led the group to the glass window. It was wide enough for almost all of them to stand side by side. The five teens were shorter so stood in front of the adults as they looked through the pane of glass.

They all jumped upon being surprised by a loud bang from the inside of the glass. The sharp tip of an alien's spine-like tail bounced off the glass before the alien rammed its head directly against the glass. It bounced back in a daze before screeching loudly. Standing upright it was the height of the average human, but it was currently slumped over on all fours and appeared shorter.

"How did it get so big so fast?" Danielle asked curiously as they began to relax.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Fitzgerald asked her.

"What do I mean!" Danielle snapped. "When we brought it here an hour ago it was a foot tall!" she yelled, motioning her hand towards the creature behind the glass. "And an hour before that it was half that size!" he added harshly.

"They grow very rapidly," Mr. Barry answered her, pushing his co-worker aside. "They shed their skin like snakes and spiders, continuously growing until they reach adult size within an hour. We believe this one to be full size when compared to the measurements of the know adults," he concluded as they all looked through the glass at the creature as it barred its teeth and growled.

"According to Dr. Bishop's notes here," Mr. Fitzgerald said as he picked up a clipboard on a nearby metal table and flipped through the pages. "This creature is the one that broke through the chest cavity of the late Professor Harry Wilson," he informed them as he read off the official forms in his hands.

Kim did a double take of the creature before asking a very intriguing question. "Where's the other one?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow of curiosity before she turned towards the four scientists. "The one that came out of me?" she rephrased her question.

"Came out of you!" Mr. Fitzgerald gasped, his eyes widening. He ran to her side and, due to his short stature, began examining the bandages wrapped tightly around her chest. "Amazing, she shows no sign of physical outwardly damage like the past victims," he observed blatantly as Kim leaned back and blushed beat red in embarrassment; she wasn't wearing a shirt or anything else supportive after all.

She wound back one of her hands and fought through the pain it caused her to smack the man away with as much force as she could muster. He fell over backwards and twitched on the ground as Kim closed her eyes and looked away from him. "Perverted old man," she grumbled. "Have some manners!" she yelled at him as Jazz and Ron came to her side to calm her down and prevent her from further stressing herself into attacking him again.

Mr. Barry picked up the clipboard and clipped the official forms back into it after Mr. Fitzgerald had dropped it upon being slapped silly by the angered teenager. "To answer your question Ms…hmm, Masters," he said, reading off the forms to find her name. "Thy majesty is kept contained in another isolation chamber," he answered her before grabbing a pull string to a white curtain to the right of the viewing window.

"Wait, thy Majesty!" Danny asked with shock and surprise. "You mean…it's a-?" he was about to ask before he was cut off.

"Yes," Mr. Barry said, interrupting him. "According to the notes, the specimen you removed from your friend here-" he said, nodding his head towards Kim, "…was a Queen," he added after a short pause. Then quite dramatically he pulled down on the curtain draw string and the curtain flew open to reveal yet another glass window behind it.

Inside the containment chamber stood the Queen Alien that had been removed from Kim. She only stood about ten feet tall but her large flat crest gave her away as a queen. She had yet to grow an ovipositor, possibly because she wasn't full size just yet. Her two main arms were held up beside her head by metal chains and shackles attached to the ceiling, as were her feet to the floor and her head by two chains to the left and right walls and her spine-like tail to the back wall. She wasn't going anywhere, not under her own power at least.

"She still has some growing to do," Mr. Barry said matter-of-factly as he stood back and folded his arms as the teens and government officials gazed inside with shock and awe. "She must be contained at all times because she is much stronger than her smaller counterpart. Her tail is powerful enough to break through the six inches of glass separating us from her. Her crest can be used like a battering ram and if she gathers enough momentum, she could topple a ten story building off its foundations, more than enough to break free from her containment room."

It was at this time that the queen looked up from the floor and realized they were looking at her. Her face emerged from its protective covering underneath her crest and she barred her silvery white teeth. From her point of view, everyone looking through the glass was slightly distorted, not from the glass, but from how she viewed the world. She didn't have eyes, so didn't see things the same as people. It suddenly tunnel visioned onto the brunette from which it grew inside of. Kim's eyes were unblinking and her mouth hung open slightly.

She recognized the girl as her previous host and reacted violently. She opened her mouth and her tongue shot out. The little mouth on the end snapped just inches from the glass, directly in Kim's face. "YAAAH!" she screamed, jumping back before turning and hiding her face in her brother's shirt as he held her in his arms.

The queen retracted her tongue and roared with a thunderous screech before she began thrashing from side to side in a desperate effort to break free. The sight of her previous host, Kim, had angered her and she was threatening to break free of her restraints. The chains clattered and the concrete and metal walls cracked under the stress as she pulled against them. Dust began to fall from the cracks in the ceiling as she thrashed more and more violently.

"Cool her off a little," Dr. Fasser ordered, not taking his eyes off the thrashing queen.

Mr. Barry complied and lifted a small door on a control panel in the wall between the two viewing windows. On the control panel were two large red buttons, each had notches indicating percentage levels between ten and one hundred percent. He turned the red button on the right to the fifty percent notch before punching it.

A loud buzzer sounded throughout the room before white smoke poured into the queen's containment chamber. She screeched and continued thrashing as she became enveloped in the white smoke. Soon she couldn't be seen anymore and the sound of her thrashing ceased; so Mr. Barry removed his hand from the button and the smoke ceased pouring into the queen's chamber.

When the smoke had finally cleared away, she had gone limp and her breathing was irradical. Her armor was now covered in a thin layer of frost, evaporating into a fine vapor. Her legs gave out and she hung from her restraints by her arms as she rested to regain her strength.

"What did you just do to her?" General Mills asked with amazement.

"Sprayed her with liquid nitrogen," Dr. Bishop answered. "They hate the cold, it makes their armor-like skin brittle."

"That would explain why they are only found in areas that have constantly warmer climates," Danielle speculated. "They hate the cold, so they are least likely to be found in colder climates."

"But…I thought they hated heat?" Danny asked. "We all know by now that they can't stand open flames," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"They like the warmth but not hate flames because their blood is-" Mr. Barry began to explain before he was interrupted.

"Explosive when exposed to fire, yeah, we already knew that," President Obama said with frustration. "I just wanna know that these creatures can't get out of here."

"And that when you're done researching them, you'll kill them so the threat of them escaping is diminished," Special Agent Whitmore added with the same frustration.

"We're concerned about everyone's safety because these creatures are extremely dangerous," Special Agent Sullivan said. "Just seeing how easily this one could escape if angered should be a red flag to you people."

"Perhaps," Dr. Fasser said with a grin. "But we do have these regulations in place to keep them contained for everyone's safety. The queen here is kept chained up, the glass is several inches thick and resistant to the corrosive properties of their blood and shatter resistant. The walls of the containment units are three foot thick solid steel. We are one-hundred feet below the surface and there is only one way in or out and that is through the elevator shaft. There are military trained soldiers stationed above the surface and MIB officials ready to take control of any situation that grows out of control."

"And should anything happen, we have dozens of escape pods in the main lobby ready to jettison workers to the surface as a further precaution," Mr. Barry added. "If they escape, they won't get close to the surface."

"And our research will be complete after we've studies their behavioral habits amongst each other once they have grown to their full size," Mr. Fitzgerald said, jumping back into the conversation after finally recovering from his brush with Kim. "Once our study is complete, they will certainly be put down and kept in suspended storage like the others," he reassured them.

Kim glared at the man while the four other teens exchanged awkward glances with each other. General Mills exchanged looks with President Obama who nodded as if they had just spoken telepathically. "If we have your word then we shall leave you gentlemen to your work," President Obama said with a half baked smile.

"What? So that's it?" Kim asked angrily. "We need more than just their word that they're gunna kill these things when they're through with them!" she yelled after the president as he turned to leave the room. "That thing almost killed me! What if it had been your wife?" she asked him. The question made him stop walking, but it was her next question that stuck. "What if it had been one of your daughters?" she asked, almost pleading with him.

Obama didn't say a word; he stood in place with his back towards the others. His hands tightened into fists at his side and he turned around with a burning fury in his eyes. "DR. FASSER!" he yelled angrily. Everyone jumped at his outburst, but it was the three scientists researching the two creatures that he was directing himself towards. "You've got one week to complete your studies," he declared with a growl. "If I come back here and those things aren't destroyed, I will see to it personally that all revenues and assets will be cut off to this facility and I will permanently close down Area 51," he declared before he stomped out of the room with his four secret service agents trailing right behind.

The three scientists gulped nervously before they went back to work observing the creatures and taking down notes of their observations. The five teens, Dr. Bishop and General Mills were still quite stunned at the president's warning to have this entire place closed down if they did not comply with his demands. He definitely wasn't on board with keeping those things alive at the cost of possible civilian casualties should anything go awry.

"Sir! Mr. President!" General Mills yelled as he ran at a sprint to catch up to the five men. Dr. Bishop and the five teens followed shortly after him, leaving the three other scientists to work in peace. He and the others caught up with Obama halfway down the hallway that led back to the main lobby. "Sir, you're really going through with this?" he asked as he came up besides the man. "I mean, you're gunna let those things live for awhile longer? What if something goes wrong before then?" he asked with concern.

"Yes, we agree sir, what if they break free and escape?" Special Agent Sullivan asked. "There could be an untold number of civilian casualties if they were to get to the surface," he reminded him.

"We have to let these men do their jobs," President Obama shouted, whipping around to look the man in the face, startling him and the others. "They could be the last of their species, and even if they aren't from this planet, if PETA gets word of any of this, they'll be so far up my ass…we are treading on dangerous water," he whispered cautiously so only the six men and five teens could hear him. "Animal Rights Activists would use this against me in the next election. So after this has all passed, all evidence that they were ever even alive must be eradicated."

"We'll have to make it seem like the research was done on fossils, not live specimens," Special Agent Whitmore suggested. "Otherwise, they might ask about what happened to them if no live ones are produced."

"It's probably best that we let these guys continue their work underground," President Obama suggested. "I mean, they've kept this operation of theirs a secret for years. I say, we make sure they dispose of them in a week's time, and they keep it a secret from those on the surface; no one is the wiser."

"It is what we are best at," Dr. Bishop added with a smile.

"A government cover-up, that's all this place really is in the end," Danny sighed as he and the four others passed the adults and made for the door that led back to the lobby. "I'm too tired to really care right now," he said with a huff. "It's going on midnight and Danielle needs her beauty sleep," he said with a mocking grin. Danielle glared at him angrily as they pushed the doors open.

They entered the main lobby and expected to find the same dozen people doing the exact same things they had been working on when they passed through earlier; instead they saw panic and hysteria. The glass walls at the front of the lobby had been shattered and flames around the entrance to the elevator were being extinguished. Tables and odd experiments had been knocked over and shoved aside to make room for injured people.

"What happened in here!" Jazz asked hysterically.

"The cables supporting the elevator snapped," one man off to the side answered her as he tended to a bleeding head wound a woman had suffered. "The force of the car sliding down the shaft caused the door to fly off its hinges and smashed through the glass barriers, what caused the explosion is still a mystery."

"Someone or something doesn't want us to leave," Danielle said with frustration as she and Danny exchanged glances.

* * *

The smaller creature screeched loudly from within its containment chamber. It lunged its tail at the glass only to have it bounce right back. Unsuccessful, it lunged its whole body at the glass and hit it with its elongated head, only to bounce off once more. It proceeded to strike the glass again and again before liquid nitrogen was suddenly pumped into the room through vents in the ceiling.

It screeched in agony and appeared to settle down as the super cold liquid dispersed into the air. It stood hunched over as frost evaporated off its body. It barred its teeth and growled as Dr. Fasser stuck his face close to the glass as he intently observed the creature. "What is going on inside your head?" he asked as the creature approached the glass and they looked at each other face to face.

He moved his face to the left and the creature followed. He moved back to the right and up and the creature followed. He tilted his head like a curious dog and the creature tilted its head as well. He opened his mouth and showed his teeth, the creature opened its mouth and shot its tongue out, just shy of impacting it against the glass.

Dr. Fasser jumped back with shock after being startled by the creature's action. "Copying human actions, a typical 'monkey see, monkey do' mentality," he said as the two other men took down notes on what he said.

The creature screeched and wound up its tail as it prepared to strike the glass with it again, but Dr. Fasser reacted quickly and placed his hand over the button that would release the liquid nitrogen. He hovered his hand over the button and froze in place. The creature did the same; it lowered its tail and head and backed away from the glass viewing window in defeat.

"Fast learner," Dr. Fasser said with a wide eyed grin. "Very impressive, this one has almost the same brain capacity as the average ten year old," he said, conjuring up a precise measurement of the creature's learning capability just from observation. "A few more advanced tests and this creature could prove to be as smart as the average human."

From inside the containment chamber, the men were heard speaking, the thick glass greatly muffling their conversation far beyond the point of being comprehendible. Dr. Fasser had turned away from the glass and had focused on the other two scientists. The creature barred it teeth and snarled before it heard some sort of liquid drop to the floor behind it.

It turned around and sniffed a liquid drop on the floor before looking up to see a clear slimy liquid leaking through an air duct. The creature wound back its tail and screeched before lunging the serrated tip of its tail into the metal grating.

"The creature!" Mr. Fitzgerald shouted.

"It's escaping!" Mr. Barry shouted, continuing what his counter-part was shouting.

"WHAT!" Dr. Fasser shouted with horror as he spun around, his eyes bulging out of his head. He caught a glimpse of the creature as it forcefully pulled the air ducts grate out of the ceiling of its containment chamber. He reached out and slammed his fist down on the button to send liquid nitrogen flowing into the room, but it was too late. The super cold liquid sprayed into the room just as the creature's tail disappeared into the air duct. "This is not good," he whispered.

"I think they're SMARTER than the average adult human," Mr. Barry whispered to him.

"You two keep an eye on things," Dr. Fasser ordered them as he walked up to a cupboard and opened it. He removed several weapons and tossed some to the two men before removing an M16 and loaded it. "I'm going in after it," he declared before he dashed for the wall to the left of the viewing window.

He reached for a small hole in the wall and opened the hidden door not previously seen. He disappeared through the door and reappeared through another door on the inside of the containment chamber. He slowly made his way into the center of the chamber and turned his back towards the viewing glass and looked up into the air duct and didn't see anything in his immediate view.

While he investigated the creature's disappearance, the two scientists in the observation room silently screamed as two more of the alien creatures dropped in on them from the ceiling. They never got a chance to fire their weapons and dropped out of sight as the creatures stabbed them repeatedly with their tails. Blood splattered against the window without Dr. Fasser's knowledge.

"This isn't good guys," he said nervously. Apparently the sound system allowed his voice to be transferred to the other room, but the same couldn't be said for the other way around. "Alert MIB Security, the creature has…" he said before he paused. He had turned around to look back at the other two only to face the blood stained window and the two creatures instead. They barred their teeth and snarled at him. "…escaped," he finished what he was saying nervously.

The creatures screeched at him, revealing the miniature heads on the ends of their tongues. One stared the scientist down while the other inspected the red button on the control panel next to the window. It nudged the button with what would have been its forehead if it had any eyes. The button rotated in place and the notches lined up until it indicated that it was cranked up to one-hundred percent power.

"I was mistaken," Dr. Fasser said with more amazement than fear or terror. "They are very fast learners. Certainly capable of the same brain wave functions as the average adult human," he said with fascination. He looked from the creature that was staring him down to the one that was observing the glowing red button on the control panel. "Uhh oh," he said with fear once more.

The creature looked up from the button and snarled at him before looking back at the button. It opened its mouth and its tongue began to quiver. The other creature that was staring him down screeched as the doctor began to fear for his life.

"No, NO," he said, his fear growing stronger with each passing second. The creature fired its tongue out like a rocket, striking the button, sounding off a loud buzzer. "NOOOOO!" Dr. Fasser screamed as he looked back up towards the hole in the air duct. The containment chamber was suddenly filled wall to wall with a dense white fog.

Ice built up on the inside of the window and it could be heard cracking as the fog slowly dissipated to reveal that the entire chamber had been covered in a fine layer of frost. Dr. Fasser stood poised in the center of the chamber just below the hole in the air duct. His entire body had been frozen solid; he had been turned into an ice sculpture covered in a fine white frost. His body creaked and cracked as the solidification process finished its work.

Frozen stiff and pretty much dead as it was, he was incapable of reacting as the creature that had escaped through the air duct showed its ugly face in the hole and screeched at the frozen man. Its tail appeared over its head before it plunged it down through the hole and impaled Dr. Fasser through his head and straight through to the floor. The force of the blow was enough to shatter the man into millions and millions of un-recognizable pieces that clattered to the floor like broken shards of glass and ice that glistened like the sun off newly fallen snow.

The three creatures screeched before the one that had been in captivity fled back into the air duct while the two that had broke in went to the other observation window and tilted their heads upon seeing their beloved queen in such peril. They screeched but she didn't respond, she hung from her chains without movement. They both charged and rammed the glass with their heads only to bounce back.

The queen had heard them bounce off the glass and looked up as they prepared to attack the glass again. She screeched loudly and the two creatures halted their attack. They looked at each other before they raised their tails and struck the glass with the serrated tips, only to have them bounce back as well. The queen screeched again and they lowered their tails in defeat.

One stepped aside while the other stepped up to the plate. It opened its mouth and shot a spray of its corrosive acidic blood at the window. It sizzled away until nothing remained of the yellow ooze; but not a scratch, dent, burn mark or anything remained on the glass. It still shined as new as when it was installed.

The queen screeched at them again and the two creatures screeched in response. The queen suddenly began thrashing, pulling on all the chains that held her in place. The chains creaked and the walls cracked again slightly, dust fell from the ceiling, but she had to give up, it was a losing battle, she would never get free under her own power.

Suddenly, the air duct covering to her chamber fell to the floor and the other captive alien creature dropped in beside the queen. Nearly half her size, it screeched before using its tail to strike at the chains shackled to her majesties tail. With it free she was able to strike at the rest of her bindings freely. She broke away the chains to her arms, legs and head, but the metal shackles remained, at least they didn't impede her movements.

The two creatures in the observation room jumped back away from the glass window as the queen rammed it with enough force to shatter the several inches of reinforced glass. The wall exploded as twisted metal and rock flew about the room. The third smaller creature appeared at her feet and looked up at her as she underwent a transformation.

The crest on her head split open down the middle and the resulting crack spread down the rest of her body. Her outer layer fell away as she shed her skin and suddenly grew into her new armor, increasing her size so that she had to slouch over to stand in the room. Her new size was too much for the shackles and they broke free, clattering to the floor. She had nearly doubled in size upon shedding her skin and was ready to make the rest of her escape.

She smashed her head into the ceiling, knocking loose brick and stone that rained down on the other three who had to duck, jump and dive to avoid being hit with debris. The three smaller creatures ran towards the point of view of the readers and disappeared from view as the queen smashed her head into a large cabinet, tipping it over in the process. She screeched loudly as she charged for the readers and appeared to eat them.

* * *

Back in the lobby; Danny, Danielle and Ron helped others shift rubble around so they could gain access to the elevator shaft. Many of the people that had been injured were sitting off to the side while the stronger people went about carrying the rubble away. Jazz comforted Kim as they sat off to the side as well while the others worked.

They looked up as General Mills walked by with a large rock in hand, they turned their heads and watched at President Obama and his four secret service agents aided in the effort as well. "So, how did you know that speaking about the death of a loved one would get through to him?" Jazz asked, concerning what Kim had said to convince the president that the creatures must be destroyed.

"Because that's what happened to me," Kim answered sorrowfully after a few moments.

Jazz was stunned by this. She jumped back and went wide eyed before she became curious. "Who did you lose?" she asked, wondering who on Earth she could have been referencing.

"His name was Robert," Kim answered as a tear escaped one of her eyes; she even managed to crack a smile. "He was such a sweet heart; he flirted with me and I knew he liked me. We agreed that we'd date, but only after we got back to the states," she explained as she looked up into Jazz' eyes. She started to tear up and looked down in sorrow. "He was killed with everyone else," she croaked.

"Ohh," Jazz sighed sadly. She took a seat next to her friend and draped her arm across Kim's soldiers. "I'm so sorry."

Kim took another moment for herself before she sniffled. "He was the first boy I've loved since my ex back in California dumped me a few years ago," she croaked, her eyes were bloodshot and tears had stained her face. "They took him away from me, and I want those things to be killed," she growled angrily. "If they aren't disposed of in a week's time; I'll come back and do it myself!" she declared ferociously before she grabbed for her chest and began breathing heavily.

"Ok, I understand your feeling bad," Jazz said to comfort her. "But your anger is only causing you more pain."

"I think…the medication…is wearing off," she wheezed.

"Crud, your meds are back on the plane," Jazz grumbled. She looked up at her siblings as they continued to shift rubble. "Think you guys can work any faster!" she yelled at them. "We need to get back to the plane; Kim's medication is starting to wear off."

"Hey, we're working as fast as we can," Ron complained as he tossed a rock out of the way.

"It won't be much longer as long as nothing distracts us," Danielle huffed as she tossed aside a rock. Suddenly a blaring alarm began sounding; everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up as a red light began flashing. "Like that," she grumbled due to the irony.

The entire room looked up and gasped when gunshots were heard being fired beyond the closed doorway at the end of the lobby. Several people began to panic and ran for several holes in the walls where single seats sat in open tubes that extended from the floor up through the ceiling. Several people ran for these seats and made their escape through the pods, being shot to safety through the escape route.

A woman was heard screaming before she ran through the back door that led into the hallway. She was suddenly lifted off her feet and into the air as the sharp tip of a creature's tail protruded through her chest. She was smashed face first into the floor as the creature entered the room and stepped on her back before removing its tail.

The creature screeched as the view zoomed in on President Obama's face from across the room. His eyes were wide and he was trembling with fear. "Take it down!" he yelled as his thoughts came back to reality.

Danny and Danielle changed into their ghost forms and both grabbed a large rock and heaved it across the length of the room. It bounced across the floor before crashing into the creature, rolling over it and forcing it back through the doorway and into the hall where it got on all fours whilst balancing the large rock with its tail.

It screeched before flexing its tail, tossing the rock back into the lobby. It exploded through the top of the door, sending smaller rocks scattering in all directions. The rock flew through the air but the Phantom siblings reacted by mirroring each other's moves and fired twin ecto-plasmic energy blasts at the rock causing it to explode into dust before it reached them.

Before the smoke and dust had time to clear, the Phantom siblings flew through it and caught the creature off guard. They sped through the doorway to the hallway and attacked the creature. Dani gave the creature an uppercut, punching it in the bottom of the jaw, leaving the front of its body vulnerable. Danny took this opportunity to kick the creature further down the hall.

It rolled over and over before using its tail to balance itself out. It screeched at them as they stood in a battle ready stance. "How did this guy get free?" Danny asked.

"That's a good question," Dani responded. "They were too focused on the one creature that they almost didn't have time to react when the two other creatures dropped in on either side of them and struck at them with their tails. The serrated tips scrapped against them, cutting through their suits and impacting the floor, luckily they came away unharmed. "WHA!" she screamed as she and Danny turned so they were back to back.

"Guess that answers my good question," Danny said frightfully. They had been surrounded on three sides by the creatures. They snarled amongst one another as if deciding which of them would attack. "Where'd the other two come from?" he asked.

"Another good question," Dani responded fearfully.

A clanking noise caught their attention. They looked down to see a metal cylinder, a flash grenade, sitting at their feet. The creatures screeched and raised their tails as they prepared to attack the ghostly teens. Danny and Dani jumped into the air, spun around and raised their legs before pushing off each other's feet.

They sprung up and over the two creatures at their sides as all three creatures attacked the ground where the teens once stood. This set off the flash grenade, blinding all three of them. The creatures screeched in retaliation to the sudden explosion. This was the distraction that they needed.

Danny and Dani had flipped over their enemy and grabbed onto their tails after they had been retracted. They used all their strength and spun the creatures through the air, dragging them across the floor and walls before they threw the two creatures into the third, sending all three of them crashing into a heap down the hall. They stood in ready stances against the walls of the hall as General Mills ran through the door to the lobby with M16 in hand.

"EAT HOT LEAD!" he yelled as he turned off the safety to his gun and opened fire on the creatures. They screeched in agony as they frantically searched for an escape. They tore the grating off the above air ducts and disappeared inside. General Mills ceased fire and lowered his weapon. "They're using the ventilation system," he growled. "Could be how the one escaped," he figured.

"Yeah, I noticed the ventilation system in the containment unit earlier," Danny confirmed.

"And how the others got inside," Dani inferred. "We've gotta warn the others and get out of here," she advised them.

They turned and went back into the lobby where all the scientists had made their escapes in the escape pods. Only one pod remained and there were several others that hadn't escaped; Jazz, Kim and Ron, President Obama and his four secret service agents as well as Dr. Bishop. One of the secret service agents that went un-named was inside the pod trying to figure out how it worked. Getting the president out was of high priority. Ron was working with Special Agents Sullivan and Whitmore to clear away the rest of the rubble by the elevator.

"They're using the ventilation system to move around," General Mills shouted as he and the Phantom siblings ran back into the room. He looked around and realized everyone else was gone. "Are we the only ones left?" he asked with concern.

"Yes, and only one escape pod left," Dr. Bishop answered him as he overlooked the repairs of the last escape pod. "I'm actually starting to see why you people want those things dead so badly," he admitted.

"If they're smart enough to use the ventilation system to escape from the containment room, then there is no telling just how well they'll find their way to the surface," Jazz said with concern.

"We've gotta beat them to the surface," Ron warned them. "And we've only got one escape pod left," he reminded them as he motioned his hands towards the pod as the second un-named secret service agent stuck his head in to lend a hand.

This would prove to be the end for them when one of the creatures was heard screeching. They looked up just as the razor sharp end of the creature's tail broke though the metal roof of the pod. It penetrated through one man's back and went through the other man's stomach. They screamed in pain before they were both pulled up through the roof of the pod. Their screams vanished and everything went silent as everyone else looked on in horror.

"And now there are no pods," Ron re-spoke his last statement.

"We'll get everyone out through the elevator shaft!" Danny yelled as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the entrance to the elevator. "We'll just phase through the mess," he turned to run in the direction of the elevator and stopped in his tracks. "If I weren't a 'C' student I would have thought of that half an hour ago," he said to himself as he palmed his face.

"If we hadn't been so distracted I might have thought of that half an hour ago," Dani growled angrily more to herself.

When they all got to what remained of the elevator, Dani grabbed onto Jazz, Ron and Kim; the former two having to help Kim who was having trouble walking due to growing chest pain; and phased the three of them and herself through the rubble and into the elevator shaft. Danny looked back at Dr. Bishop as President Obama, General Mills and Special Agents Sullivan and Whitmore gathered near him. "You aren't coming?" he asked the scientist.

"No," Dr. Bishop said. "While you're escaping, I'm gunna do what I can to make sure those things don't reach the surface," he explained. "They found their way in here; they'll find their way out if they aren't stopped."

"And you can stop them?" Special Agent Whitmore asked him.

"Yes," he responded. "This facility is compromised; it must be destroyed to prevent future incidents like this from happening. If I survive their attack, then I can blow this entire place to kingdom come just as you're escaping on the plane."

"You're an honorable man Frank," President Obama said. General Mills tossed him a hand gun that had been holstered on his thigh. "I hope your sacrifice isn't in vain, good luck." He turned towards Danny who phased all four of them through the rubble.

Dr. Bishop bid them farewell before getting his gun ready. He slowly made his way into the hall, constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure none of the creatures were following him. He made his way around a corner and disappeared from sight.

* * *

Dani flew up the elevator shaft with such speed; she almost lost her grip on her payload. She phased the three college teens through the top of the shaft as Danny came up behind her. Before he could reach the top though, one of the creatures appeared above them, coming out of an air duct. It leapt at them, catching Danny by surprise. He made himself and the four adults intangible just as they sped past the creature. It screeched up at them as they phased through the top of the shaft. It fell silent and crawled back into the air duct from hence it came.

Danny phased them all through the roof of the bunker and landed them on the tarmac near where Dani had landed. "Ok, now we just gotta get back to the plane," Danny sighed. He looked around and found that the plane was a few hundred yards down the tarmac and the Specter Speeder was only about a hundred feet away. Dani and the others were already headed for it so he figured he'd better join them. "Will you guys be able to take off on your own?" he asked the adults.

General Mills removed his cameo jacket and tossed it to the ground after it had been slashed through when the creature attacked them in the shaft, luckily it hadn't harmed him. "That was way too close," he said with disbelief. He looked over at President Obama as he held his hand to his chest. "Sir?" he asked.

Obama removed his hand to reveal that he had a long scratch stretching along the length of his chest, ranging diagonally from his left shoulder to his right side. "I'll be fine," he reassured his men. "It's just a surface scratch," he said as the wound stung him.

They turned and looked back at the bunker upon hearing the noise of metal being torn to shreds. On the roof were two of the creatures after they had torn the metal air ducts to escape. They screeched and leapt off the bunker and charged the men. "You'll never make it to the plane," Danny said as he put himself between the charging creatures and the men. "Follow the others to the Specter Speeder," he ordered them.

He took off, charging the creatures. The men retreated to the safety of the Specter Speeder just as the others were helping Kim into it. They looked back as Danny fought against the creatures. He occasionally went intangible to avoid being stabbed by their tails, landed multiple energized punches and kicks and even managed to grab one by the tail and swung it into the other.

He flew back to the Specter Speeder while the two creatures pulled themselves together. He touched down next to the Specter Speeder where General Mills and Special Agents Sullivan and Whitmore stood guard at the door to the flying vehicle. "Why haven't you taken off yet?" he asked them. "I can fly to catch up," he reminded them.

Inside the Specter Speeder, Jazz was turning over the vehicle's engine in a constant effort to start it, but to no avail. Ron sat on her right and Dani looked over her left shoulder before it sputtered once or twice before dying altogether. A quick shot of the fuel gauge showed the needle twitching over the 'E' before it ceased movement and dropped. The vehicle sputtered once more before the engine died.

The three teens exchanged nervous expressions when the engine wouldn't start. "Ugh, I think an empty fuel tank may be weighing us down," Dani said nervously to answer Danny's question as to why they haven't taken off yet.

"Where are we supposed to find a new power source?" President Obama asked. "Shouldn't your men have refueled the tank after they fixed this thing?" he asked General Mills ferociously.

"Yes, they should have," General Mills responded nervously. "They must have been ambushed and killed off by the creatures before they could refuel the tank," he figured.

"Isn't there a way to power this thing without fuel?" Ron asked. "I mean, wouldn't your parents build in a back up feature that allowed it to run on ghost energy or something?"

"You'd think, but our dad isn't really all that smart," Jazz sighed. "But if we found a powerful enough electrical power source, we might be able hotwire this thing."

"Wait!" Danny shouted with excitement. "They have that rock of ecto-ranium that's powering the entire base," he reminded them. "We might be able to hook that up to the Speeder."

"I have an engineering degree," Special Agent Whitmore informed them. "If we get our hands on it then I can secure it to the engine."

"Only one problem with that," Kim growled through her chest pain. "They are the only ones that can go back to get it!" she reminded them, pointing at Danny and Dani. "And to make things worse, they can't touch it in ghost or human form."

From outside the vehicle, the two creatures finally caught up with them. They screeched at them as Danny and Dani jumped between them all and prepared to defend their friends. The creatures suddenly began to back down and slunk away shamefully. "That's right, fear us!" Dani yelled at them.

"What are you, the Box Ghost?" Danny scolded her.

Back underground, the third smaller creature appeared in the hall outside the lobby and screeched down the hall as the view panned away from it. The queen's crest appeared before she turned her head and looked towards the ceiling.

Back aboveground, the ground shook suddenly. Everyone took supportive stances as the ground shook beneath their feet every few seconds. "What the hell is going on!" Special Agent Sullivan yelled in shock. The ground shook again, this time with enough force to send a crack shooting down the tarmac.

They looked over the tarmac in search of the large crack's origin and realized it came from a large bump in the tarmac next to the military plan they arrived in. As the bump grew, the military plane slowly began to roll away. More cracks spread away from the bump before the tarmac exploded. A massive spine-like tail protruded from the top of the bump in the tarmac, sending large chunks of rock and rubble in all directions. The tail disappeared below ground before the rest of the tarmac bump exploded as the queen forced her way up through the ground.

Her arms came up and she pulled herself from the hole she had created. She climbed out of the hole in the tarmac and growled at the group who were standing terrified several hundred feet away. She screeched at them before she charged them.

Thinking quickly, Danny reached into the Specter Speeder and lifted the back seat before pulling out a pair of metallic gloves and tossed them to Dani. "Use the Ghost Gauntlets to get the ecto-ranium!" he ordered her. "I'll buy us some time by keeping that thing busy."

The two secret agents jumped into the specter speeder before Danny put his foot on the outside and pushed it away just as the serrated tip of the queen's tail smashed into the ground where it once sat. Dani flew off in one direction to fly around to the hole the creature made in the tarmac while Danny flew up to confront the queen.

Noticing that she was bigger than when he saw her in her containment chamber, he decided to mock her. "I've noticed you've gained a little weight your majesty," he punned concerning her recent growth spurt. She screeched at him, her breath forcing Danny to float backwards. "Whoa, two words; breathe mints," he said as he held up two fingers in the form of a sign of peace.

The queen screeched again before she brought back her arm and swung at him. He flew out of the way, dodging her attack before she swung her tail at him. He ducked his head as the queen's tail sailed over him, he then flew to the side again as she swiped at him again. He brought his hands over his head and energized them before firing a powerful beam of energy directly into the armored plating covering her chest.

She screeched and seemed to fall over backwards before she moved one of her feet back and stabilized herself. Danny charged her and landed a powerful kick to her armored chest before bringing an energized fist up into her chin, snapping her mouth shut before she stumbled backwards again.

Before she could attack after recovering, Danny formed a pulsating ball of energy the size of a beach ball. "Batter up," he said with a grin as he grabbed onto it and rotated his arm around at his shoulder until his arm and the energy he held formed a fast spinning disk. "And the pitch is…!" he yelled with a grin after chucking the ball of energy at her.

The queen screeched and swung her tail in an upward motion, the serrated tip making contact with the energy ball. With enough force exerted, she sliced right through the energy ball, splitting it in half and sending each half flying around her. The halves of energy sailed around her and exploded on impact with the tarmac hundreds of feet behind her.

She screeched at Danny and he drew back in shock. "…not very good," he said, finished what he was saying moments before. He had been expecting a different result other than what happened. He flew side to side, dodging more of her strikes before she charged and hit him with the side of her large crest. He crashed into the ground and skidded to a halt. He leaned up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hurry up Dani!" he yelled across the tarmac. "I can't keep this up forever you know!"

"Hey, don't rush me!" she yelled back to him as she flew across the tarmac away from the battle site, the ghost gauntlets attached to the back of her pants. "I'm working on it!" She landed next to the hole the queen made when she came up through the ground. She looked down through the hole and realized she was directly over the underground hanger the alien ship was in. "This will certainly make things easier," she said with a grin. She looked up from the hole at the two creatures that followed them to the surface. They were barring their teeth at her as slime dripped from their mouths. "But that won't," she sighed with frustration.

She pushed herself off the ground just as one of the creatures jumped across the hole to attack. She brought up one of her legs and kicked the creature in the jaw sending it crashing back into the ground next to the other creature. The second creature screeched back leaping over the hole at her. She floated in place and waited for the creature to come to her. She brought her leg up in a stretch kick, nailing the creature in the chin.

She flipped upside down and pushed herself off the creature's chest with her feet, propelling herself down into the underground hanger. She flew around the large ship and went towards the front where the balcony was that they were on earlier. "This is a piece of cake," she cheered to herself. A look of panic spread across her face as she came to a complete halt in mid flight. "Make that FRUIT CAKE!" she shouted with horror.

She came to a halt because the third smaller creature was on the balcony. When she came to a halt, it screeched and leapt through the air at her. It attacked her, crashing into her and sending them both smashing through the glass windshield of the ship which had been camouflaged to look like metal.

She crashed into a metallic seat that was covered in the same hardened acrylic that covered the walls and floor; the creature flew over her and crashed into the floor across the room. She looked down at the seat and cocked an eyebrow with delight. "You know, for terrifying aliens, they certainly know how to relax," she said surprising herself.

The creature that attacked her screeched, catching her attention. She looked over her shoulder at the creature and yelped as she jumped out of the seat. The creature lunged its tail at her and sunk it through the back of the acrylic seat as she pulled an acrobatic move and lifted her entire body up and over the seat with her hands. When the creature retracted its tail, pulling the seat with it, she flipped upright and floated in the air.

As it tossed the seat away; it crashed into the wall and shattered on impact; Dani formed an energy ball and blasted the creature directly in the chest, sending it flying back into the far wall. The green mist evaporated from her hands shortly before the other two creatures attacked. Their tails punctured through the roof and created a hole large enough for them to drop through.

They landed on the hardened acrylic floor on either side of her and screeched. "Oh, this is just too easy," she said with a wicked sneer. As they leapt at her, she raised her legs in a split and kicked them away before the first attacked her again. "ARGH!" she yelled out her battle cry as she charged the creature and punched it in the gut with both hands folded into fists.

The force of her impacting it sent it crashing through the wall, sending dust and other debris flying. She didn't follow it through the wall and instead hung back and descended to the floor to catch a breather, but she never got it. The two newer intruders appeared behind her, she heard them growling and turned to face them just as the one she just sent crashing through the wall came up so that they had her surrounded.

She looked from one to the other as they snarled amongst themselves, possibly discussing in their language which one was going to attack first. One snapped at her and she jumped back only to be snapped at by another.

"My attacks only bounce off these guys," she said nervously to herself. "I need something that can hurt them more than just energized punches." After one of the creatures snapped at her again, her hands went to her back and fell on the ghost gauntlets hanging from a loop on her pants. "Thank you Mom and Dad," she said with a grin.

She removed the gauntlets from her back and slipped them over her hands. She flexed her fingers within the gloves and infused them with energy. They sparked to life as electricity coursed through the metal gloves developed by her clumsy father. As they surged with power, they soon changed when rings of white light appeared around them and changed their appearance. The glove on her right hand became black while the one on her left became white; the same colors as the gloves of her suit.

"Ohh, this is gunna be good," she said with a wicked grin. One of the creatures screeched before jumping at her with its mouth open. Dani swung her arm and nailed the creature with the ghost gauntlet with enough force to send it flying backwards and crashing through the windshield where it rolled to a stop on the balcony.

She snickered and barred her teeth with a wide grin as she glanced over her shoulder at the other two creatures as they snarled at her. She turned around and powered up the gauntlets with her own energy. She fired a blue beam of energy that hit one creature into the other and sent them crashing through the wall.

The creature out on the balcony was just coming too before it was picked up by its tail and swung in circles before Dani let it go, sending it flying over the edge of the balcony. It flew over the edge and crashed into one of the large struts holding the giant ship off the floor. The metal brackets keeping it in place crumpled and the spacecraft fell forwards.

The two creatures that had been inside the ship still, jumped out through the hole in the windshield and landed on the balcony before proceeding to attack the ghost girl, but the front of the spacecraft rammed into the edge of the balcony. Cracks spread outwards and the whole thing began to fall to pieces. Dani hovered into the air as the entire balcony collapsed beneath her. The two creatures screeched as they plummeted towards the floor far below with the ship and the rest of the debris.

Dani soon descended after them and found all three lying near each other. The two on either side shook off the fall and growled up at Dani before they looked back at their companion in the middle. It got up, but its tail had been pinned to the floor by the large ship; it was unable to move with its tail trapped. It screeched at Dani as she began to snicker.

"Well doesn't look like you're going anywhere," she teased them as she ascended beyond their reach. "The ladder was the only way back up, so unless you've learned to fly…" she began to say before the two creatures that hadn't been pinned jumped onto the wall and began to climb. The creature that had been trapped was freed when it pulled away and half of its tail broke off. It spurted acid all over the floor and the ship, melting them away. It leapt onto the wall and followed its comrades as they climbed the wall towards the ghost girl. "…or climb," she sighed with disappointment, mainly at herself.

She flew back up and through the open doorway that led into the alien display gallery. She flew passed all of the display tanks and went straight for the glowing green rock on the pedestal in the middle of the room. She landed next to the pedestal and took several deep breathes as she contemplated how she was going to go about removing the anti-ghost space rock.

With the safety of the ghost gauntlets protecting her from being shocked, she grabbed the stone and pulled on it but it wouldn't budge. "Well, it doesn't hurt me, so that's good," she said with relief. "The question now is, how am I gunna get this thing back to the surface without taking the whole thing with me?" she contemplated.

She flew backwards several feet and built up an energy charge in her hands, the blue glow thanks to a slight enhancement brought on by the gauntlets. She blasted a powerful ray of blue energy at the pedestal that became absorbed by the chunk of ecto-ranium before it was reflected back at her.

"Huh?" she questioned, her eyes widening with shock. "WHAA!" she yelled as she jumped into the air and did a split to avoid being hit by her own blast. "Phew!" she sighed with relief as she wiped sweat away from her brow. "That was too close," she said with a relieved grin.

The sound of the creatures growling behind her wiped away any relief she felt. She turned around nervously and found that the three creatures had caught up with her. The one that had lost most of its tail and another were standing, snarling at her with their teeth barred. The third had been hit by her blast and was blown backwards into a display tank, shattering glass and spilling its contents all over the floor.

The creature with its tail still intact whipped its tail at the ghost girl but missed when she flew to the side. The serrated tip of its tail impacted the pedestal the ecto-ranium rock was on. It punctured the metal pedestal and an electrical storm followed. Electricity flowed from the pedestal, through the creature's tail and electrocuted it.

The creature screeched as bolts of electricity coursed through and around it in large arcs. The tailless creature jumped aside and watched helplessly as its companion was suddenly blown backwards and crashed through another display tank, shattering the glass and spilling its contents all over the floor.

The pedestal continued to course with electricity as loose wires protruded through the mangled hole made by the creature's tail. With many of the wires now broken from within, Dani was more easily able to grab hold of the ecto-ranium and pulled it free from its pedestal; nearly a foot and a half of wires trailing behind it. She held it up with one gauntleted hand and snickered.

She looked up from her prize as the tailless creature snarled at her, the other two starting to recover by getting to their feet after crashing through the display cases. It charged at her, but she dodged by jumping into the air and landed on its head. She stomped it into the floor and hoped over it and hovered in the air behind it.

"Hey, Stumpy," she mocked it, her name for it being derived from the stump it now sported for a tail. "I thank you and your friends for this," she said as she indicated the ecto-ranium in hand with a tilt of the head. She turned in the air and with a boost of energy from her feet, she rocketed herself towards the exit with a trail of green smoke in her wake.

Stumpy and one of the other creatures screeched before they gave chase to the ghost girl, but the third stayed behind and looked towards the chamber that held the adult aliens and the ghost portal where someone was heard working on something.

* * *

"YAAAAH!" everyone in the Specter Speeder screamed in terror. The Queen alien was leaning down and looking at them through the windshield. From her point of view, she tunnel visioned onto Kim and screeched wildly before she was silenced as Danny dropped in from above and stomped her into the tarmac.

"Hey your Majesty," he growled. "Our royal session hasn't been concluded yet," he said as if she could understand him. His phantom suit had already been damaged from earlier, but by now he was starting to look like he'd been through a meat grinder. Thankfully he was still able to put up a descent enough fight to keep the creature away from the others.

He flew up and over her and fled away, turning her attention from the others in the specter speeder. She screeched and gave chase, her feet tearing up chunks of tarmac with every step.

Danny turned in mid flight, slowing down only to fire an ecto-plasmic energy ray at his pursuer. She lowered her head and the beam of energy impacted her large crest, dissipating into a cloud of green smoke without so much as harming her. She continued charging towards him with her head lowered. Shocked disbelief coursed though him before she slammed into him, her crest impacting him and sending him flying across the tarmac. He skipped and rolled before coming to a skidding stop.

He rolled over and wiped blood away from his mouth as he looked up at his attacker as she charged him once more. "Dani better hurry," he grunted to himself. The queen screeched at him as she drew close enough to him to strike him with her tail. "Whoa!" he shouted as he rolled from side to side as the serrated tip penetrated tarmac where he had been laying had he not been rolling to dodge her attack. He rolled into one position and looked up, reacting to her attack by spreading his legs as the queen's tail struck between them. "Alright your majesty, I get your point," he punned, although that didn't make the situation any less terrifying.

He jumped to his feet when she retracted his tail and went to fly away, but she struck him with her tail as he fled. The serrated tip appeared to plunge through his back as he was slammed into the ground. He cringed as he lay on the tarmac, scared to think that he had just been killed, but he felt no pain, instead a tingling sensation at his mid section.

He looked down at his waist where the queen's tail was still protruding up from, but his waist had become transparent. She had struck him through his belt, where whenever something hit him there it would pass right through harmlessly. He rolled to the side and looked down at his waist from the front and sighed with relief, wiping sweat away from his brow.

His relief was short lived; he cringed as the queen screeched again and swung her tail at him. He put up his arms to shield himself from her attack. He had closed his eyes tight and didn't see what happened. A loud BANG and the sound of glass cracking sounded around him. He opened his eyes to find Dani standing over him.

She had her arms raised over her head, the ghost gauntlets and the chunk of ecto-ranium gone, possibly dropped off at the specter speeder. A green energy barrier had been put up around them, cracking when the alien queen's tail slammed on top of it. The queen retracted her tail and Dani lowered her arms, letting the energy shield dissipate.

"Bout time you got back," Danny growled, but with a half smile as he leaned up on his elbows. "Did you get the rock?" he asked her.

"It's being fixed to the Speeder as we speak," she informed him. She looked up at the queen as she snarled at the newcomer. She screeched loudly, only to have Dani snicker. "You call that a screech?" she mocked the giant monster. "Try this on for size Queen Elizabeth!"

She leaned her head back and took in a deep breath as she gathered energy in the back of her throat. When she leaned forward, the energy she had gathered forced its way up through her vocal cords. She exhaled and unleashed her Ghostly Screech. Danny covered his ears to protect himself from the high velocity sound waves being emitted from his sister, but it wasn't being aimed at him so he didn't receive the full blow.

The alien queen ducked her head and screeched as she was overwhelmed by the ghostly screech. She herself screeched before the sound waves overpowered her and she was forced off her feet. She was carried by the energized sound waves and slammed into the military aircraft. The plane crumpled and collapsed under the creature's weight, falling to the tarmac in a heap of twisted metal.

Unable to hold out her Ghostly Screech for as long as Danny's Ghostly wail, Dani was forced to power down as she ran out of power. A ring of blue light appeared around her waist and split. She remained in her ghost form, but her hair turned black and her eyes changed from neon green to baby blue. The shrieking sound waves dissipated and everything went silent.

Dani wobbled on her feet as stars twirled around her head. "Whoa," she said as she stumbled. She fell back and was caught under her arms by Danny now back on his feet. "I'm getting better at remaining in my ghost form when I do that," she said with a tired groan.

They looked up as the queen began to recover from the attack. She shoved large pieces of twisted metal aside as she wobbled to her feet. "Let's worry about getting home before that thing comes after us again," Danny suggested.

He put one of her arms across his shoulders and flew her the short distance to the speeder where Special Agent Whitmore was currently using a large wrench to tighten a bolt that would secure the chunk of ecto-ranium to the engine in the back of the flying vehicle. Many of the wires had been secured to several other wires, connecting the alien power source to the engine.

Inside the speeder, Jazz was busy wiping sweat from Kim's face in the back seat while Ron was busy trying to start the vehicle. Finally the vehicle rumbled to life, the lights kicked on and the entire vehicle began to hover a foot above the ground.

"Sir, are we really just gunna leave these things?" Special Agent Sullivan asked President Obama as he tended to the wound across his chest.

"We'll call in the national guard, the US Army, whomever it takes to kill those things before they reproduce," Obama said. "Danny and Danielle may have to come back," he said as Danny helped a weakened Dani into her seat. To reserve energy they had both changed back into the human forms. "These things must be killed before daylight," he declared. "As soon as we get back to Washington, we'll call it in."

"Washington is too far," Ron shouted as he prepared the vehicle for takeoff. "Amity Park is much closer, you can call it in from there," he said as he pushed a button on the dash board. The rockets exploded and shot out flames that shot them across the tarmac towards the alien queen.

She screeched at them and charged the flying vehicle. Ron pulled back on the steering levers and they soared skyward. The alien queen lowered her head as they buzzed over her. She spun on her feet near the hole in the tarmac as Stumpy and another creature emerged onto the tarmac. The three of them screeched before the scene switched back underground as their screeches echoed away.

Dr. Bishop typed rapidly away on a keyboard; he looked up from his tireless work at the giant arch portal as it began to spark to life. "Another minute and it'll be ready," he said to himself. He continued to work for a few more seconds preparing the portal for what he had in mind. He stopped when he heard something behind him. He turned around and found himself only a few yards from the creature that remained behind.

He jumped with shock and terror; turning back to his work, he began typing twice as fast as he had been. The creature screeched as it wound back its tail and sprang it towards the hard working scientist. The serrated tip cut through the air and dug deep through the scientist's back and emerged through his chest, pinning him to his work station.

"ARGH!" he yelled in pain. His breathing suddenly became labored and he spat up blood and spit with every breath. He looked up at the arch portal and focused in on the ancient filtrater on the side before eyeing a big red button on the control panel he was pinned too. He smirked before the bony fingers of the creature wrapped themselves around his head. The creature hissed as it opened its mouth near his head. "Go to Hell," he groaned.

He lifted his arm and dropped his palm on the big red button just as the creature snapped its tongue into his head, killing him. It tossed his body aside and looked up at the arch portal as it suddenly sprang to life. Green gas swirled within the large arch, extending out and over the room for several yards before the swirling gas was sucked back into the arch.

A siren began blaring as the green gas began swirling in the opposite direction and changed colors from green to blood red. The entire structure began coursing with electricity; the filtrater on the side of the portal exploded and the entire room began to shake. The creature cocked its head before the entire room filled with a bright light.

Back on the surface, the queen and the two smaller creatures sprinted across the tarmac as they followed the smoke trail left behind from the fleeing Specter Speeder. They didn't get far though because the tarmac began to crumble beneath their feet. They managed to reach the end of the tarmac and leapt onto solid ground before a bright explosion converged around them. They screeched as they disappeared in the bright light.

The fleeing Specter Speeder shook wildly as Ron tried to keep it steady, his firm grip on the steering levers just barely able to keep them flying straight as the shockwaves of the explosion tried to bring them down. Everyone gripped onto their seats tightly as the turbulence bounced them in their seats.

Finally the speeder stopped shaking and they were able to look back and see what had happened, they were all shocked to find themselves fleeing from another giant fire ball. "We're not responsible for this one," General Mills said with wide eyes as he shook his head from side to side.

"Dr. Bishop," Danielle reminded them. "He said he had a plan to stop them," she reminded them.

"The arch portal," Danny spoke up. "If that thing is as old as they say it is, the filtrater may not have been swapped out for a new one," he figured.

"If he knew that, then he could have set the portal to explode with enough force to blow up the entire base, killing all four of those things in the explosion," Jazz specified.

"Let's hope it worked," President Obama sighed with relief as he settled back into his seat.

As the speeder fled, the giant fire ball from the explosion rose high into the air, forming into a giant mushroom cloud with a ring of fire circling around the stalk.

The sound of fire crackled in the background as flames rose over large boulders. Several pieces of tarmac shifted around before being tossed aside by Stumpy and its companion. They jumped aside as the ground shook and the queen emerged from a hole in the ground. They had survived the explosion. They all screeched before the queen appeared to eat entire view, blacking out the entire scene.


	5. Part 4

The dark of the night sky is suddenly shattered as the Specter Speeder careened through the air, red hot flames erupting from the rockets in the back. A small explosion in the flames shook the entire vehicle, the resulting turbulence knocking about the passengers.

Jazz' grip on the steering levers tightened as she focused on a brightly lit landing strip still quite some distance away. "I don't like this you guys!" she yelled. "This ship is falling apart around us!"

Danny and Danielle clutched at their seats, digging their fingertips into the metal benches. Ron grabbed for a seatbelt and took the time to buckle himself and his sister into their seats. Kim had since fallen unconscious from her injuries and so was lain in her seat and unable to maintain her stability at this crucial time.

"I sure hope there will be someone waiting to help us after we land," he said with a stern expression. He looked down at his sister with worry. "We need to get her to a real hospital for her injuries; and this crash isn't going to help any."

"Don't worry kid," General Mills calmed him. "We've already radioed ahead to the Army base in your town," he reminded him; apparently they had called ahead on the flying vehicles radio.

"They should be meeting us at the airport," Agent Sullivan speculated. "They understand that if air force one crashes, they must be on the scene immediately."

"I trust in Jasmine's ability to bring us in for a safe landing," President Obama moaned; his wound to his chest taking its toll on him, though he managed to crack a smile.

Jazz growled angrily and clenched her teeth tightly as she glared out the windshield, challenging the task of bringing the ship in for a crash landing. She battled the failing ship to bring it the rest of the way in for the runway to catch them. If they could just make it that far, they'd be safe; but before the runway was a large ditch followed by an earthy mound. If they didn't make it past that, the ship would crash and they would perish, they just had to make it.

In the airport control room, several people ran around frantically trying to make sense of what was happening. One man, over-weight and balding, sat in his chair as he kept a watchful eye on the radar as a small green dot quickly approached from the south-west. "Air force one is clear for landing," he said nervously into a headset. "Military aid is standing by for an emergency rescue operation. May the Lord be with them," he prayed.

The Specter Speeder continued to rattle from the turbulence as Jazz did her best to hold the small aircraft steady. "Hold on you guys!" she yelled. "This is gunna be one heck of a bumpy landing!" she warned them.

Suddenly, and without warning, the rockets on the back end exploded in a massive fireball. With smoke now pouring from the back of the flying vehicle, it took a sharp dive downward towards the ground. The ditch at the end of the runway suddenly came into the view of the windshield. "YAAAAAAH!" everyone screamed as the vehicle took the sudden sharp dip.

"We're not gunna make it!" Agent Whitmore hollered fearfully.

Danny and Danielle's eyes suddenly opened and were glowing bright neon green. They remained in their human forms but infused their energy with the ship turning it and everyone inside intangible. The ship passed harmlessly and flawlessly through the earthy mound, coming out the other side unharmed and undamaged, this however didn't prevent the vehicle from crashing.

After passing through the earthy mound, the vehicle retained its tangibility moments before hitting the ground. It bounced and lurched before it flipped onto its side and began rolling across the tarmac. "YAAAAH!" everyone screamed as the ship rolled around them. They remained strapped to their seats, so weren't tossed around the cabin.

The ships already battered frame buckled, the new windshields shattered, flames erupted and smoke poured out of all of the cracks and holes in the vehicle. The vehicle continued to roll and skip across the tarmac before it finally lost momentum and stopped upside-down.

Flames continued to erupt from the bottom of the ship as three fire trucks sped onto the tarmac. Several firemen jumped out of the trucks and lugged long fire hoses with them to put out the blazing inferno. "We have to get those flames out now, before they spread to the vehicle's fuel supply," one of them shouted to the others over the roar of the fire.

Before they could turn on the water, another force intervened. A flash of blue light emitted from within the flames before the flames appeared to intensify. Red and green flames mixed and rose into the air as the remnants of the ship suddenly began to rise with the flames.

The firemen looked on in awe as the ship rose off the ground, leaving everyone who was inside on the ground. They were just as surprised; they looked up as Danny and Dani held the burning ship above their heads. In their ghost forms, the green flames created an aura around their bodies, the flames rising and meeting the flames which had completely engulfed the Specter Speeder.

Their powers must have neutralized the heat from the flames allowing them to be within the proximity of the burning ship. This allowed them to raise the ship away from the others, keeping them out of harm's way.

Then suddenly, with a burst of energy from their hands, the Phantom Duo blasted the ship high into the sky. Higher and higher the ship rose until it was in the upper atmosphere. A close up of the ecto-ranium rock powering the ship showed it to begin glowing intensely before the sky and entire town was suddenly alit with a bright flash of light as the Specter Speeder exploded in a massive fireball.

"ARGH!" the firemen and surrounding soldiers yelled as they shielded their eyes from the blinding light. Several people across town looked up in awe as the light lit up the streets below. From outside town, an eyeless creature looked up towards the light before it snarled.

The explosion from the ship echoed away until everything was silent except for the sound of the flames that formed auras around the Phantom Siblings. They glared up into the sky and lowered their arms to their sides. No longer fueled by ecto-energy, the aura of green flames changed to reddish-orange.

"We have got to stop destroying the Specter Speeders," Danny said in a stern tone as they descended back towards the ground. Dani nodded in agreement. They touched down near the others as a few soldiers aided the President.

"I'm fine," he reassured the soldiers. "I can stand on my own," he said as he stumbled to his feet. "Aid the girl," he said, indicating Kim as Ron held her unconscious body in his arms. "She's been through worse and needs more immediate help than me."

Kim was immediately strapped to a gurney by paramedics; one of them held an IV drip above her. As they wheeled her off to a waiting ambulance, Jazz and Ron quickly confided in the Phantom siblings. "We're going with her," Jazz informed them. "We need to make sure she's alright."

"We'll call my parents in the ambulance," Ron said in a worried tone. "They're gunna be traumatized by this."

"Call our parents too," Dani requested. "They need to know that we're alright as well." Jazz and Ron agreed before running off to join Kim and the paramedics in the ambulance.

"They sent us off into the ghost zone, expecting us to have been back several hours ago," Danny reminded her. "They're probably worried sick."

"Or furious," Dani added as she put her hands on her hips. "It's way passed my curfew," she reminded him. "Think they'll understand?" she asked, giving him a cocked eyebrow.

"Risking our lives to save Kim from a deadly race of ancient aliens?" Danny asked as an answer to her question. "It's what we do every day," he finished with a smile. "Minus the alien part," he added reluctantly.

"Sir?" one of the attending soldiers asked the president as the firemen packed up their trucks for their journey back to the station. "Don't mind me asking, but what have all of you gotten yourselves into?" he asked concerning how badly wounded he and Kim were. By now Obama's shirt had become stained crimson.

"We had a run-in with a few dangerous and deadly creatures being observed and experimented on at Area 51," General Mills answered. "They escaped and killed everyone but us," he said, anger beginning to show in his voice. "We were lucky to escape before the entire base was blown to smithereens," he said in a low growl as he made his hands into fists.

"So it's true after all?" another soldier asked. "The alien conspiracy? It's true; it was all a big cover up?"

"Until the girl that was taken away found them living in the ruins of a temple in South America," Agent Whitmore answered. "Her entire dig team was killed, she was the sole survivor."

"The conspiracy was so huge that not even we knew about it," Agent Sullivan concluded, anger rising in his own voice. "Only the scientists that worked at the base knew and now they are all dead too."

"We can only hope that the blast that destroyed the base was enough to destroy them too," President Obama said with worry. A blast of light suddenly shot through Danny's mind, his eyes widened and he began trembling. "There's no telling what kind of horrors those things would unleash on this world if they survived."

Dani was the first to take notice of Danny's trembling. "What's up?" she asked, catching everyone's attention and bringing their focus to them.

Danny didn't answer; his focus was on the end of the runway where the ditch rose into a hill. She turned and looked, finding herself trembling fearfully as well. All the others, confused, finally looked towards the end of the runway. Their mouths dropped and eyes widened as they began to fear the worst.

"We've…got company," Danny trembled, eyes wide and mouth drooped open. The creature screeched to the sky before it hopped off the hill of the ditch and landed on the tarmac at a sprint. "Prepare yourself," he instructed Dani as he overcame his fear and got into a defensive stance, she followed his lead and stood defensively at his side.

"Take that thing out men!" one of the soldiers ordered the others. They all raised their weapons and prepared to fire on the charging creature.

"Hold up men!" General Mills counter-ordered them. "Our weapons are almost useless against that thing," he informed them. "Let the kids handle it," he said as he looked at the Phantom duo. "They stand a better chance anyway."

The creature screeched when it was close enough to slash its tail through the air, striking the ground where the Phantom duo stood. Luckily, they had taken to the air, avoiding the serrated tip as it plunged into the tarmac, breaking off large chunks.

Danny hovered above the creature for a few moments before he quickly descended, stretching out one of his legs, kicking the creature in the side of the head with the sole of his boot. The creature was knocked off its feet and sent skidding across the tarmac, but Danny grabbed its tail and held on tight.

He snarled at the creature through tightly clenched teeth and glared daggers at it before he began swinging the creature in a circle by its tail. They spun faster and faster until they nearly became a blur before Danny released it, sending it flying high into the air.

The creature cart-wheeled through the air before outstretching its arms to steady itself and stopped itself from spinning. It looked down towards the ground just as Dani flew up to it with her fists energized. She grunted as she landed several hard punches to the creature's stomach. It screeched in agony before it was silenced by a bone crushing uppercut to the jaw, sending it careening higher into the air.

Dani flew fast to get ahead of it and formed an energy ball after getting above it. "ARGH!" she yelled as she brought her hands down and blasted the creature square in the back, sending it crashing back into the ground, forming a small impact crater in the tarmac. Cracks radiated outwards from the crater as dust rose and settled.

Danny and Dani descended to the ground and stood over the creature, standing defensively, they expected the creature to get up and continue fighting, but it lay still. They appeared to have knocked it unconscious. Feeling reassured that the soldiers could take it from here; they turned and started to walk away.

"Get us a transport," President Obama requested of Agent Sullivan who stood nearby, neither of them had once taken their eyes off the two ghost teens as they fought the creature. "Our business here is concluded," he said, feeling reassured himself that they were no longer needed.

"Right away Mr. President," Agent Sullivan saluted before he ran off to find the nearest soldier that could get them a ride back home.

* * *

Elsewhere in the city lurked an evil that hid in the darkness of an alleyway. "So how much did you get this year?" a teenage boy dressed as a zombie asked his friend who was dressed as a large pumpkin as they both walked by the dark alleyway. After they had passed, Stumpy, the alien creature named by Dani because it lost half of its tail, stuck its head out of the darkness of the alleyway and looked around for other people.

When the coast was clear it screeched back into the alleyway before it sprinted out into the light from a nearby streetlight. It turned and looked back into the alleyway as if waiting for something to follow. The buildings and ground shook, dust unsettled off the brick buildings as the shaking stopped.

Everything shook again as the sides of the buildings that made the alleyway began to crack. A third tremble shook the surroundings before the sides of the buildings exploded. Stumpy dove to the side to avoid being stomped into the ground as the alien queen emerged from what remained of the dark alleyway.

She screeched down at Stumpy who screeched back in response. Stumpy jumped onto the brick wall of a nearby building and climbed to the top before it looked around in all directions. It tunnel visioned onto one building in particular, a brick building with a large odd shaped laboratory sitting on top. A large sign that read "Fenton-Works" hung on the side of the building.

As it tunnel-visioned onto Fenton-Works, the color scheme changed to a form of heat vision so that the color scheme of the entire building was different shades of blue and red depending on their temperature signatures. The only oddity was a swirling green vortex that appeared beneath the building.

Stumpy screeched loudly into the night sky and dashed off across the roofs of buildings. He ran by the viewers before the alien queen jumped up onto the roof of the building and dashed across the roof after the smaller creature. She screeched as she passed out of view.

* * *

A green and white helicopter lifted off the ground with its valuable occupants onboard. The president and his two remaining secret service agents were taking Marine One back home to Washington. Danny and Dani watched them lift off as they held their hands in front of their faces to keep the wind out of their eyes. They paid no attention as General Mills and several other soldiers strapped the still unconscious alien creature to a flatbed truck.

"Let's get this thing out of here guys," General Mills ordered the other soldiers as they used whatever they could to bind the creature to the truck bed; belts, pieces of torn cloth, plastic ties. "Once we get it to a secure facility we can dispose of it."

As the soldiers worked diligently to bind the creatures arms legs and head to the truck, but they failed to bind the creature's tail as it hung over the edge of the truck. They also failed to notice its fingers flexing on one of its hands as it woke up after being knocked out.

"If only this things armor wasn't impervious to bullets we could kill it right here and now," a female soldier scoffed angrily as she tightened a belt around the creature's leg.

She had been speaking to another soldier as he tied a piece of cloth around the creature's neck. He looked up and his eyes widened when he saw the creature's tail rising up and over his comrade. "Look out!" he shouted fearfully as he jumped back and grabbed for his gun.

"Huh?" the female soldier said in confusion before she even knew what hit her. The creature's tail shot through the air and impaled the woman in her back. "YAAAAAH!" she screamed as the serrated tip of the creature's tail emerged out through her chest and swung upwards, carrying her with it.

The sound of gun fire caught the attention of everyone still on the runway. "What the-!" Danny exclaimed fearfully as he and Dani turned around and watched in horror as the male soldier fired at the creature's tail as it swung the female soldier around like a rag doll.

It eventually flung her off and sent her crashing back to the ground in a bloody pulp before it went after the man. He continued to shoot at it until it impaled him through his chest and tossed him aside before it began cutting at the bindings that had it strapped to the truck bed. When it was free it stood upright and screeched loudly into the night sky.

It jumped when startled as General Mills made a bold move and jumped onto its back and held onto the tubes that extended out of its back as it thrashed about in an attempt to throw the man off. "Eat hot lead!" he shouted as he grabbed up his assault rifle and fired into the back of the creature's neck.

The creature flailed about as bullets bounced off its back. General Mills struggled to keep his footing as the creature desperately thrashed to get him off, but he managed until the creature rolled off the truck bed and landed on the ground. He dropped his assault rifle but managed to keep his grip on the creature's back.

"Feel my cold blade in your backside!" he shouted angrily as he unsheathed a metal blade. He stabbed the blade deep into the creature's blackened armor. The creature screeched in agony again before it plunged the serrated tip of its tail into the man's back. "YAAAH!" he yelled as the creature's tail emerged through his stomach. It lifted the man off his feet and swung him around to the creature's front. They were face to face and the creature was on the verge of killing the man. "Do your worst," he challenged the creature, spitting up blood in the process.

The creature barred its silvery teeth before it opened its mouth to reveal its tongue with the miniature toothed head at the tip. The creature's tongue began to quiver as it prepared to attack the man, but the sudden whoosh of an energy attack halted the creature's attack. The creature was suddenly knocked off its feet as an energy attack struck it in the side.

It flung General Mills as it crashed into the cab of the truck, crumpling it. The creature stood and snarled at its attacker. Danny and Dani stood several yards away; Dani staring daggers at the creature while Danny's hand let off a light green mist.

"I'm getting tired of killing these things," Dani seethed with anger, never taking her eyes off the creature.

"Then let's finish it off," Danny suggested. "We don't stop until that thing is dead."

The creature screeched again before it charged at the two ghost teens, sprinting on all fours. Danny and Dani put their hands together and formed a massive energy ball between the two of them. "ARGH!" they yelled as they thrust the massive energy ball towards the charging creature. It avoided by jumping into the air so the energy ball passed harmlessly beneath it.

General Mills wasn't dead, but was bleeding all over the ground from his stomach wound. He groaned as he looked up to see the glowing ball of ecto-energy coming straight for him. He gawked at the attack before it struck; causing a massive explosion that engulfed him and what remained of the flatbed truck.

The creature landed on the ground in front of the Phantom duo and struck at them with its tail. They jumped to the sides to avoid the serrated tip as it plunged into the tarmac, ripping up large pieces in the process.

Dani skidded across the ground before she lunged back for the creature, charging her fist with energy before she landed a hard punch to the side of its head. The creature screeched and stumbled as it prepared to slash its tail at her, but Danny managed to catch it before it could strike. He tightened his grip on the creature's tail and swung it around, lifting it off the ground. The creature screeched as it was smashed into the ground.

With the creature temporarily stunned, Dani jumped onto its back and rapidly fired energy blasts into its back. This woke up the creature and it started thrashing around to get her off. Danny tried to keep the creature steady but couldn't keep his grip on the creature's tail as it swung around. The creature eventually ripped its tail free of his grip and plunged it straight for the ghost girl on its back.

"Dani! Look out!" Danny warned her.

She looked up and dove aside just as the creature's tail came down. A slashing sound is heard just as Dani rolled to the ground. She looked up with surprise in her eyes upon seeing what had just happened. The creature had stabbed itself through the back of its head with its own tail. It had been aiming for Dani, but after she jumped aside it maimed itself.

The creature stood still and silent with its mouth hung open. Saliva dripped from its open mouth before it gargled up yellow acidic blood that spilled out of its mouth and all over the tarmac. Its body creaked as it toppled over onto the ground, dead at last. Dirt rose from the ground around it as everything went silent.

Dani stayed where she landed on the ground; sitting up by holding herself up with her arms behind her, she sat breathing heavily as the realization that it was finally over began to sink in. She grinned and laughed quietly to herself as she transformed back into her human form and fell backwards onto the ground completely sleep deprived and low on energy.

"No more," Danny sighed as he leaned on his knees. "I'm too exhausted, I can't fight anymore," he said before he too collapsed backwards and smashed into the ground, raising dirt around his body as he transformed back into his human form and began to doze off.

* * *

A clock ticked inside the Fenton household as the view panned across the darkened living room before settling on the front door. The door handle jiggled slightly before it was blown inwards. Wooden splinters scattered all across the living room as Stumpy sprinted into the empty home. It screeched before heading straight for the kitchen and nearly jumped down all of the steps into the Fenton's lab.

It looked around as it once again tunnel visioned onto the Fenton Portal which was currently closed when viewed normally. But the creature's vision allowed it to see the swirling green gases behind the closed door. It looked from the door to the large control panel on the wall to the right of the portal and struck it with what remained of its tail, sending sparks and shards of twisted metal all over the floor.

The only response from the portal was a slight purple glow from the crack in the two doors. The glow faded, leaving the creature confused. He tilted his head to the side and hissed at the contraption before charging for the door. It bashed into it head first with a loud clang! The creature stumbled and shook away the resulting headache that came from running into the door.

After regaining its composure, it screeched at the door to the portal and lunged for the door with its arms. It stuck its fingers between the crack in the doors and slowly began to separate them. The doors slid open as the metal scrapped against the floor and top of the portal, fighting to stay closed. As indicated by the previous glow, the swirling gases had changed from green to light purple.

A view from within the ghost zone showed a previously unknown location where the entire background was entirely dark violet. The lighter purple swirling gases of the ghost portal began to open in the void as the doors were pried apart. Aside from the difference in color, what set this part of the ghost zone apart from the rest was its sole inhabitant; an enormous dark green colored crystalline rock that floated in the dark violet void.

The light from the swirling purple portal shone on the large crystal. From deep within the crystal mass, an ancient beast awoke. A large red eye opened within the crystal as a deep growl echoed from within the rock. The eye's pupil dilated before a panned out view of the entire crystal showed the entire thing giving off a light-green smog as the crystal began to break apart.

The green smog compacted and began swirling into the form of a twister that entered through the opened ghost portal. The creature jumped aside as the green smog spilled out of the portal and began to fill the entire lab to the point of becoming opaque.

* * *

"Common you guys, it's time we all cleared out of here," a soldier ordered to the others remaining out on the tarmac. "The airport needs us out of here so they can reopen the runway."

He walked away to reveal Danny and Danielle sitting up on the ground, still wide awake in their human forms as they waited for their parents to come and pick them up. They were too exhausted from fighting the creatures to fly the few miles to their house. Dark circles sat under their eyes from lack of sleep. They only perked up as General Mills was carried by them on a stretcher.

"You gunna be alright dude?" Danny asked groggily as he was carried by the teens.

"I'll live," General Mills groaned but with a grin. "I'm just glad the two of you have bad aim," he chuckled. He had survived the explosion that had been aimed in his direction in the earlier fight. They all shared a short laugh. "You kids did well, everyone is safe now thanks to the two of you," he congratulated the teens. "Keep up the good work, saving the world and all," he said before he was finally carried away to a waiting ambulance.

As the ambulance left and several other military vehicles prepared to leave, the Fenton RV rolled up and screeched to a halt. The doors swung open and out jumped Jack and Maddie, Maddie from the driver's seat and Jack from the passenger. Maddie sprinted for her children while Jack stumbled out and fell directly to the ground. "Ugh, I'm alright," he groaned from the blacktop.

"Oh my babies!" Maddie whined as she wrapped her arms around her two children. She embraced them so tightly, they both cringed in agony. "I'm not even angry that you're out passed curfew, I'm just so glad you're both alright!"

"That's great mom," Danny coughed. "But we can't breathe right now," he informed her.

She immediately released them and proceeded to examine them for their injuries. Both ghost teens sported scraps and gouges that had long since stopped bleeding. They had multiple bruises and they were so sleep deprived they appeared to have black eyes. Thankfully they had done all of their fighting in their ghost forms so their normal clothing remained undamaged.

"I think an explanation is in order?" she asked them calmly. She stood upright and looked down on them as Jack walked up while rubbing the back of his head.

"Ugh, perhaps that can wait until after we've all gotten some sleep?" he requested with a yawn. "It's almost three in the morning."

"Oh I guess it can wait," Maddie sighed before she too yawned. "I mean it's not like they have school in the morning," she shrugged.

"That's a good idea," Danny said with a sleepy grin. "We desperately need some sleep. Dani's close to becoming unresponsive," he said as the view panned to her yawning deeply.

Everyone was suddenly shaken awake as the ground began shaking. The shaking disappeared as suddenly as it started. "That was no earthquake," Jack half yelled as he and the others began looking around. "It felt like an explosion."

"Oh no," Danny gasped quietly, though the others all heard him. His eyes were wide; he appeared to have been woken up, if not for the dark circles under his eyes. Everyone followed his gaze back towards town and were awe struck at the sight of a gaseous green haze rising from the city and condensing high in the sky.

A quick view of their home revealed the green smog pouring out of the windows, front door and even the chimney as it rose into the sky. Stumpy scaled the side of the home while the queen perched herself on the op-center. She screeched loudly into the sky as everything began to rumble again.

"That's coming from our house!" Danielle exclaimed fearfully, her eyes opened wide. "I don't have enough reserves to fight off a ghost horde!"

"Maybe not, but we're gunna try anyway," Danny reminded her as he scowled at the condensing green cloud that was emanating from their house.

The scene immediately changed to the Fenton RV as it drifted around a street corner before speeding down the road. With Maddie at the steering levers, Jack couldn't be blamed for such hazardous driving. Even he was terrified by his wife's driving. "Maddie, even I like a good ghost brawl every now and then," he said, gripping his seat intently. "But could you slow down just a bit?" he asked desperately.

"Not as long as my house is infested with supernatural ecto-plasmic entities!" she snarled, never diverting her gaze away from the road. She stomped on the gas pedal and the RV lurched forward faster.

"Will our night ever be over?" Danielle asked with a lengthy yawn.

Her question was answered as something suddenly came out in front of the speeding RV. A black blur trailed out from an alleyway before impaling itself through the windshield. "WHOA!" Jack and Maddie yelped as they were sprayed with shards of glass as the windshield shattered.

The RV came to a sudden stop as it was lifted into the air by the spine-like tail of the alien queen as she emerged from the dark alleyway. She screeched as she flipped the RV over and smashed it into the pavement, destroying the road and crushing the vehicle. She removed her tail from the wrecked Fenton RV and rammed it with her crest, sending it skidding across the pavement and crashing into a light pole that sparked before going out.

With all of the windows smashed, Jack and Maddie crawled out of what remained of the windshield. Broken glass fragments had covered them with deep gashes all up and down their faces and arms. "What hit us?" Jack asked as stars spun around his and Maddie's heads. They looked up and went white in the face upon seeing the alien queen. She leaned over them and barred her silvery teeth.

"YAAAAAAH!" they both screamed for dear life as the creature screeched towards the sky.

It only stopped screeching when there was a flash of blue light from within the remains of the Fenton RV. The entire vehicle rose up off the ground as Danny and Dani held it up over their heads. They glared daggers at the creature which towered over them by more than twenty feet. "ARGH!" they both grunted as they tossed the wrecked vehicle at the alien queen.

She screeched as the heavy vehicle struck her in the side, knocking her off her feet and into the side of a building before she collapsed to the ground, trapped beneath the weight of the RV. Stumpy came out of hiding from the dark alleyway and looked on helplessly before turning and screeching at the phantom duo.

"Well look who it is," Dani said while managing to crack a smile. "It's our old friend Stumpy."

"Kids, what are these things?" Maddie asked them; she and Jack were still a little shaken up and scared out of their wits.

"They are what we've been fighting all night," Dani answered them. "They've killed dozens of people and even put Kim in the hospital."

"They have acid for blood, miniature heads for tongues and they use their tails to impale people through their chests," Danny informed them.

"Their armor is sturdy enough to deflect our energy attacks," Dani added. "But they hate extreme temperature changes, hot or cold."

"And we've discovered that their acidic blood is highly flammable," Danny concluded as he and Dani prepared to fight Stumpy as he prepared to lunge at them whilst bearing his silvery teeth. "And the worst part is, they aren't ghosts, let alone from this world. They are living proof of extra-terrestrial life…real life aliens."

"Well, hee hee," Jack chuckled nervously. "They, umm, don't seem that tough," he said as he and Maddie began sweating bullets.

Stumpy screeched as he began his charge at the phantom duo. Still more tired than ever, they pushed off the ground and charged the creature head on. Danny sped ahead and nailed the creature in the chin, exposing its stomach where Dani landed a punch of her own, but their lack of sleep came at a cost. They were speedy, but they lacked in strength. Unaffected by their attacks, the creature smacked them both aside with what remained of its tail.

They both collided with each other against a brick wall that cracked underneath them before they collapsed to the ground in a heap. "Darn, if only that could've knocked me out," Dani sighed, hoping to have gotten some sleep.

They shook it off but not before Stumpy charged at them again, this time with his mouth open and tongue ready to lash out at them. It screeched as it got within reach. Danny and Dani braced for the attack but their father intervened. Jack rammed into the side of the creature, knocking it off its feet and slamming it into the ground.

"Get away from our kids you beast!" Jack yelled at the creature angrily as he pulled an ecto-plasmic energy gun out of nowhere and fired at the creature. The blast struck the creature directly in the chest, knocking it back several feet, but it regained its footing and screeched back at the man.

"Kids, we can handle ol' ugly here," Maddie yelled to the Phantom siblings as they got up on their feet. "But it'll be up to you to finish off the larger one," she instructed. "Then we can work on figuring out what to do with that green smog pouring from our house."

"Ugh huh," they both groaned reluctantly before they focused their attention on the alien queen as she used her tail to lift the remains of the Fenton RV and tossed it aside. Free of the heavy burden, she got to her feet and shook it off before screeching and charging to rejoin the battle.

She halted in her tracks as Danny and Dani fly up in front of her. She screeched at them and snapped out her tongue which almost lashed them; thankfully, lack of sleep hadn't yet affected their speed and reaction time. They dodged the creature's tongue and flew skyward, drawing her attention away from the battle between stumpy and their parents.

She screeched before she leapt directly from the street to the top of a building that the phantom siblings had begun flying over. She screeched again as she gave chase, sprinting across the roof. "We have to keep her off the streets and away from people!" Danny yelled over the sound of the rushing wind to his cloned sister. "We have to lure her away from anyone else that she could hurt." Dani nodded as they sped off across town, leading the alien creature across the roofs of buildings.

Back down in the streets, Jack and Maddie continued their battle with Stumpy. Jack, with the use of the Ghost Gauntlets, held tightly onto what remained of the creature's tail. The creature screeched as it swung its tail from side to side in a desperate attempt to make the man let go. Jack kept a sturdy grip and never let go as he was thrashed about.

"Ha ha! That's right, struggle," he taunted the creature with a massive grin. His grin disappeared when he was suddenly lifted off the ground and then slammed back into it. Dazed, he was no longer able to hold onto the creature's tail as it swung him one last time. He skidded across the ground and smashed his head into a fire hydrant; luckily it remained undamaged.

"Umm, perhaps I should take over fighting?" Maddie asked, leaning over her husband, looking down into his face with a look of saddened and tired desperation.

"Sure," he grunted in agony. "Be my guest," he cringed as he rubbed the back of his head from where he hit the fire hydrant.

Maddie looked up from her husband and gazed upon the creature as it snarled at her whilst barring its silvery teeth. She unclipped something from her belt and held it in her hand as she twiddled it with her fingers. With her other hand she opened a pouch on her belt and removed what appeared to be Chinese throwing stars.

She wound back her arm and grunted as she threw the razor sharp weapons at the creature. Not knowing what they were, it didn't even bother to dodge them, but learned the hard way that they hurt and could cause damage when they struck. They implanted themselves deep within its armor causing it to screech in agony.

It thrashed about in agony as its acidic blood began to dissolve the throwing stars. They clanged to the ground after half melting away. "Well, I guess it's true," Maddie figured upon witnessing the acid for blood dissolving away her weapon, but she only smirked at the creature. "You ever go to the rodeo?" she asked it mockingly as she held up the first thing she removed from her belt. Twiddling it in her fingers, it separated into two separate pieces of metal connected by a long line of metal wire.

The creature screeched at her before it began to charge. Maddie let out a battle cry as she too began to charge for the creature. As it slashed out at her with one of its arms, she jumped high into the air and landed on the creature's back. Startled, the creature tried to shake her off, but was unsuccessful when she spun the metal lasso over her head before she swung it around the creature's neck.

She held onto one end while the other wrapped around the creature's neck before coming back around and landing in her free hand. She grabbed on tightly and pulled back on the two pieces of metal, tightening the metal wire around the creature's neck. The creature screeched and struggled to free itself from the metal lasso. It thrashed about as the weapon sank deep enough into its neck to cause it to start bleeding.

The acidic blood ate through the metal causing the wire to snap. Losing her grip on the weapon now that it had been snapped in two, Maddie yelped as she was tossed from the thrashing creature. As she rolled to the ground, she dropped several other weapons across the ground.

She rolled onto her stomach and blew her hair out of her face as she looked up at the creature as it struggled to regain itself after nearly having its throat slashed. When it had, it tried to screech, but only a gargled hiss came out. It charged at Maddie once more.

Thinking quickly, she grabbed the nearest weapon that she had dropped when she rolled to the ground and activated it by pushing a button. The double bladed light sword hummed to life as she thrust it upwards and through the bottom of the creature's mouth as soon as it was within range. "ARGH!" she hollered as she spun the light blade in a semi-circle, slicing all the way through the side of the creature's head.

The creature stood as still as a statue, silently, as Maddie rose to her feet and deactivated the weapon. "Don't go losing your head now," she taunted the creature with a wicked, yet exhausted, grin as she turned and walked away. No sooner than she said this, the front half of the creature's head fell to the ground, completely decapitated from the rest of its body which soon collapsed to the ground as well. The creature had finally been killed.

* * *

Elsewhere in Amity Park, a rather pudgy looking cop leaned against his patrol car eating a donut while listening to his radio as the dispatcher gave out critical information, although he didn't appear to be paying it any attention as he was too transfixed on eating his snack. "All officers respond, 10-91V reported on Main Street and heading towards downtown. Be advised, 11-59," a woman's voice relayed over the radio.

The pudgy officer held up a second donut and was delighted about eating another before a sudden whooshing sound distracted him. He looked up as Danny and Dani sped through the air overhead. He chuckled with a grin and shook his head as he opened his mouth to take a bite out of his donut.

Suddenly a loud screeching noise distracted him as well. He chomped his mouth closed and looked back up as the alien queen jumped across the street from one building rooftop to another as it continued to chase the Phantom Siblings. After the creature was gone, the cop's mouth dropped open as he dropped his donut to the ground as he stood stiff as stone out of shock.

The wind blew through Danny's hair as he squinted to keep his eyes open despite being half asleep. "We can't fight that thing head on anymore!" he yelled over to Dani who flew by his side. She too was trying to keep the wind out of her eyes by squinting. "We're too weakened from earlier fights and tiredness. So instead, we must trap it and kill it by any means possible."

"We have to outsmart it?" Dani asked, yelling over the wind.

"I have a plan," Danny informed her. "But it might bring back some painful memories for you though," he added with some disdain.

"Whatever it takes to kill that thing," Dani said eagerly, focusing her eyes on the rooftops ahead of them.

They glanced back at the creature as it screeched at them. It continued to leap from rooftop to rooftop as it tried to catch up to them, but never seemed to gain any new ground, although it never lost any either. Not even when they led her into a large water silo that sat on one of the buildings. It just plowed right into the silo with it crest, knocking it down and into the streets below.

Eventually, they left the city limits behind them and they were flying over open countryside; Danny was leading them away from the city, to a location where no one else was likely to get hurt. He knew where they were going, so Dani hung back just a little to follow and keep an eye on the creature to make sure it wasn't about to get them.

The creature leapt from the final building and landed on a deserted road before it sprinted after the two ghostly siblings. It managed to gain some new ground on them at this point; it must have been able to run faster on the ground rather than jumping across rooftops. "Danny, it's gaining on us!" Dani hollered over the wind.

"It's alright," he reassured her. "We're almost there," he yelled back to her.

She looked ahead and went wide eyed at the sight of the substation she was electrocuted at earlier in the year. Memories of the pain she endured that rainy night flashed through her mind, but she knew that would be perfect enough to kill the creature. She survived being electrocuted because she was half ghost, but the creature wasn't. Plus, that high enough voltage would have been enough to kill her if the shock didn't because at such a high voltage, the temperature itself would be enough to kill it. She saw just one problem with the plan.

"Danny, we can't take out the entire cities power grid again," she warned him. "The city said it'd sue the family if we did that again on purpose."

"We aren't leading it to the substation," Danny informed her with a look of determination in his eyes. "We're going to tangle her in the high voltage wires that lead to it. If the shock doesn't kill her before the cables snap, then at least the substation will be able to supply the town with enough power until the cables can be repaired."

As they drew closer to their destination which was quickly getting closer at their rate of speed, the creature lashed out at them with her tail, but still wasn't quite close enough to reach them.

"We must be careful though," Dani warned him. "Even intangibly, we can still receive quite the shock from the electrical arching," she reminded him. Danny nodded, fully understanding the consequences if things didn't go as planned.

If they had looked back, they would have noticed that the creature had gained enough ground to be within distance to snap at them and eat them whole if she wished. Luckily she never tried such a move and they were able to make it to their destination. Several hundred yards away from the substation itself, they flew around a series of a dozen or so power cables that stretched out in front of them.

Sparks started flying as soon as the creature ran into the power cables. It screeched in agony and thrashed to free itself, but only managed to get itself more tangled. Her large crest and the hollow tubes protruding from her back were wrapped in the cables and absorbed the high voltages as they surged from the cables and into her.

Danny and Dani watched with disappointment as the light show began to die down and the electricity stopped flowing. The creature was still alive and was no longer thrashing. She did appear to be worn out from the ordeal and was resting, building her strength to the point where she could break free from the cables, which were now the only things keeping her from continuing to chase after the ghost teens.

"Great, now what are we supposed to do?" Danny asked, sounding desperate for the battle to end so he could get some well needed rest.

The creature growled angrily at them before one lone water drop fell from the sky and landed on her crest. She looked up towards the sky as thunder began to rumble in the distance. More rain drops hit the ghost teens and they too looked up as the sky lit up with a flash of lightning followed by yet more distant thunder.

Several more rain drops fell from the sky and before long a light drizzle was happening upon them. Dani looked down from the sky and back at the creature as her rain soaked hair hung over half her face. A grin had spread across hers and Danny's faces. "Physics 101, what happens to a closed electrical circuit when exposed to water?" Dani asked.

A few tiny sparks flew from the electrical cables and the creature took notice. As it began to rain harder and harder, the sparks grew and before long the creature was thrashing about, screeching in terrible pain as electricity arched around it and flowed through it.

The creature's thrashing had become so intense that several of the cables were beginning to snap from the stress that was being put on them. Before long the creature managed to pull itself free from the cables, even dragging some of them with it as it stumbled away from the remaining cables.

Danny and Dani floated backwards and away as the creature screeched, not ferociously, but in agony. It was no longer connected to the electrical lines, but its body continued to spark with a few electrical arches as the rain water helped to spread the flow of electricity across its entire body. The creature tried attacking them by swiping at them with its arms, but this only caused it to lose its balance.

The creature screeched one last time as its body swung around and toppled backwards, crashing into the ground with a thunderous crash, splashing water that had accumulated on the ground in all directions. Danny and Dani were soaked by the splashing water, not that they weren't already soaked from the heavy downpour. The creature let out one last moan before its head fell to one side and the fingers on its hands relaxed.

The Phantom siblings flew over to the creature's body and spun around so they were facing away from their town as they hovered over the fallen creature. Its mouth was open and its tongue dangled out, resting on the ground. The miniature mouth on the tongue was also open and didn't react to having fallen out of the creature's mouth.

"Do you really think it's over?" Dani asked as she moved her water soaked hair out of her eyes. Not only did they have dark circles under them, but they showed a certain gloom that said she had finally had enough.

"Yeah," Danny confirmed with a nod as he moved his own water soaked hair out of his eyes. "We can finally go home and rest," he confirmed.

Unfortunately, they had both completely forgotten about the green smog that had been rising from the middle of town, from their own house to be more precise. The green smog cloud was still rising from their home, but it had begun drifting in their direction and had begun to accumulate a short distance behind them.

A loud growl emanated from within the smog, catching the siblings by surprise. They turned around in the air and were horrified to see a great big pair of glowing red eyes open from within the green smog behind them. Their horrified expressions only worsened as a wide mouth appeared as well before opening to reveal a set of silvery white teeth; similar to the creature's they had been fighting all night.

They backed away from the smog in a hurry as the skull of a gigantic beast emerged from it. The skull was elongated and had a large crest set atop. More green smog settled around the back of the large skull and solidified into vertebra with long spikes protruding out the back. A ribcage and arms spread outwards as the creature descended from the smog, dragging more green smoke along with it. Pelvic bones formed next as did a tail by the continuously expanding backbone, eventually ending with a serrated tip, much like the other creatures. More hinged bones expanded from the back of its ribcage and looked like wings. But no legs sprouted and the creature floated in the air as more green smog continued to gather around it.

"Danny, what is that thing?" Dani asked, terror causing her voice to shake. Hers and Danny's eyes were opened as wide as they could be, despite being so exhausted.

"Something far beyond our ability to defeat," Danny speculated.

The skeletal creature's eyes squinted at the two ghost teens before it opened its mouth and inhaled a large amount of the green smog that surrounded its body. The gas solidified into a sphere and began to glow more brightly as if it were made from ecto-plasmic energy.

"Oh crud!" Danny yelled as he and Dani simultaneously put up an ecto-plasmic glass barrier between themselves and the creature. The creature fired the blast from its mouth, a continuous beam of energy that struck the Phantom Siblings and exploded on contact with the glass energy barrier.

There were no screams from them as the beam of energy that struck them and exploded continued onward towards the far edge of town. A flash of green emanated from far off in the distance indicated that the beam of energy exploded again when it impacted the ground, with Danny and Dani right in the middle of it.

Green smoke rose from the center of a crater in the ground that had been overrun with grass and weeds and had been there for quite some time. The crater itself was several yards across and now had a fresh, smaller crater in the middle. It was from this new crater that the green smoke rose from. As the smoke cleared, battle worn and sleep deprived Danny and Dani lay on the ground, Dani lying across Danny.

Danny pushed her off and she rolled onto her back as he pushed himself up off the ground. He seemed quite shocked when he noticed a ring of blue light appear around his waist. It split and moved up and down his body; thankfully it only partially transformed him back into his human form. He retained his white hair and green eyes and even his gloves and boots, but his suit had transformed into black pants and a black t-shirt with his DP symbol on the front.

"Well this is not looking good," he sighed with relief before he noticed another flash of blue light. He looked over at Dani as she began to examine herself as well. Like Danny, she transformed but retained her white hair and green eyes as well as her gloves and boots. Her cargo pants and hooded sweater had returned but kept her suits black and white color scheme. "We only have enough power to sustain ourselves for a few more minutes."

"I think that thing is a ghost," Dani groaned as she sat up. "I mean it used an energy attack on us," she stated as she and Danny got to their feet. "Plus, it's more like a gaseous skeleton than a physical being."

"Yeah, but we don't have a Fenton Thermos on us," Danny reminded her. "And even if we could open a portal to the ghost zone large enough to send it back, we don't have anywhere near enough energy to pull it off. We need another plan." He began to look around and noticed they were in a larger crater not recently created. "Hey, this is where we fought Pariah Dark before he sucked the entire planet into the ghost zone," he observed.

"How does that help us?" Dani asked as she rubbed the back of her head.

"It doesn't really," Danny confessed with a nervous chuckle.

"Now is not the time to be joking!" Dani snapped at him furiously.

They looked skyward as the gaseous creature screeched. They looked up into the rain as the creature floated over them. It continued to give off green smog, but suddenly began to reabsorb it. It roared loudly as it underwent another transformation. Its body began to form over its bones, filling in the gaps and covering its entire hide in a blackened armor. Its glowing red eyes disappeared as it more closely resembled the creature's they've been fighting all night. The bones that extended out of its back darkened and grew leathery flaps that gave the towering beast wings like that of a dragon.

With all of the green smog absorbed into it, the creature had been restored to its physical form. It towered over them so much, that it would have dwarfed even the queen alien. It leaned down and got close enough to the crater to breathe on the ghost teens. It barred its teeth and growled at them before opening its mouth to reveal its tongue, which resembled the others, only it was much larger and had arms. It more closely resembled the upper half of one of the smaller creatures, not only in appearance, but size as well.

It snapped its tongue at them, but they flew out of the way and out of the crater. They fled for their lives, but they couldn't get around the creature's immense size. It swung at them with its tail and knocked them both to the soggy ground where they slid into the trunk of a tree. They shook off the hit and were just barely able to dodge as the creature's tail slashed at them. It missed of course and sliced through the bottom of the tree's trunk.

"Time to move," Danny said as he grabbed a dazed Dani by her arm and dragged her out of the path of the falling tree. They dove to the side as the tree crashed to the ground, soaking them with water that was splashed up in the process.

"Guess that answers the age old question; if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" Dani grumbled, giving Danny an idea.

He jumped to his feet and grabbed onto the fallen tree before taking flight. He looked at the creature as it prepared to slash its tail at him. "Timber!" Danny yelled as he swung the tree and threw it at the creature. No bigger than a baseball bat comparatively, the creature caught the tree with its tail, swung it around and tossed it back at the ghost boy. "Crud," he moaned before the tree slammed into him and he fell out of view.

Next, the creature focused its attention on Dani as she tried to flee. It lunged its tail after her but she managed to avoid the blow by speeding out of the way. She unleashed energy from the soles of her feet and rode the energy like rollerblades. She continued to dodge the creature's tail as it impaled the ground in multiple locations.

Dani eventually became turned around and sped through the creature's legs. She thought she was home free before she felt a pain on her back. "YAAAH!" she screamed as she was smashed into the ground, her face in the mud. The creature had twisted its body and was now pressing her face first into the ground with one of its massive hands. The creature screeched loudly into the sky just as thunder shook the forest. As it stopped screeching it prepared its tail to strike the girl.

The tree that Danny had thrown and had thrown back at him moved before he tossed it aside with a loud groan. He rubbed the back of his neck when he heard Dani screaming. He looked up and saw the creature prepare to impale her with its tail. "Dani!" he yelled fearfully. He jumped into the air and flew as fast as he could whilst building energy in his hands.

Dani cringed and yelled again as more pressure was put on her back by the creature. It screeched as its tail prepared to lunge for the girl. Just as the creature was about to plunge its tail, Danny formed the energy in his hands into the shape of a sword and swung. The creature screeched again as the energy blade cut through its tail. Acidic blood spurted from the creature's wound as its severed tail fell to the ground.

The energy sword faded from Danny's hands as he looked down at his cloned sister with sadness in his eyes, she wasn't moving. A ring of blue light appeared around her waist and split before moving up and down her body. Her clothes all returned to normal, but her white hair and gloves remained.

His gloom over his fallen sister prevented him from preparing himself for the creature's attack. "YAAAH!" he screamed as he was hit in the back by the creature's massive hand as it swiped at him. He crashed into the ground and slid across the slick grass before coming to a stop quite some distance away. "That hurt," he moaned as he pushed himself off the ground.

The creature screeched as it strolled up to him and lifted its foot to step on him. As it brought its foot down, Danny rolled over and extended out his arms, using his energy to put an energy dome around himself, protecting him from being crushed. The creature stepped onto the dome and pressed down as hard as it could, causing Danny to begin sinking into the mud.

The creature screeched as it stomped onto the energy dome over and over, pushing Danny further into the mud with each step. Danny grunted with each step the creature took. Each step took its toll on his energy supply, weakening him to the point where another ring of blue light appeared around his waist and transformed him.

His clothes returned to normal but he retained his white hair, green eyes, boots and gloves. He was beginning to sweat and knew that he was mere moments away from losing all of his powers, at which point, he'd be defenseless. While he was fighting a losing battle, Dani began to stir.

"Ugh," she moaned as she lifted her face from the mud. She glanced around and noticed that she had almost completely transformed back into her human form. She looked up and desperately tried to keep her eyes open when she saw Danny struggling to keep the creature from crushing him with its foot. "Danny," she groaned as she tried to find the strength to push herself off the ground, but her arms collapsed underneath her and she fell back into the mud. "I have nothing left to give," she whispered as she closed her eyes.

As she began to drift off, memories of the day's events flashed through her mind. Their trip to see Clockwork, meeting the Sandman, traveling to South America to save Kim, slashing one of the creature's with a fire infused energy sword causing it to explode…

"That's it!" Dani gasped as she suddenly woke up. She quickly glanced up and saw that Danny was still struggling against the creature. She noticed a melted trail through the mud a short distance away from her. The creature was leaking acidic blood from the cut off end of its tail, and the water soaked ground prevented the acid from melting away the mud. The trail led straight up to the creature. "Time to make Bruce Willis proud," she grunted as she fought to drag herself close enough to be within arm's reach of the acidic trail.

As the last reserves of energy began to drain from Danny's body, he began letting off a light green haze as he started phasing in and out of his full human form. He glanced over at Dani as she managed to crawl across the ground to where the acid from the creature's tail and formed a trail in the mud.

As Dani reached the trail she began snapping her fingers, causing small sparks to spring from her finger tips, but they all faded away into nothing. "Common, please work," Dani pleaded as she kept snapping her fingers before finally a small sustainable flame erupted from the tip of her thumb. She grinned at finally being able to tap into her fire element. "Yippe ki yay," she groaned. "You ugly…mother…" she managed to say before her green eyes suddenly went white and her mouth gaped open. Her head dropped back into the mud and her hand fell onto the trail of acid in the mud, lighting it ablaze before she transformed back into her human form completely.

The trail of acid scorched and fought against the heavy rain as it reached the creature and burned straight up to the end of its tail where it managed to enter its body through the open wound. The creature screeched in agony and removed its foot from the energy dome and hunched over as the flames began to quickly spread throughout its body. Orange cracks emanated from the end of its tail and spread across its entire body as it screeched in agony.

Danny took advantage of this moment and released whatever energy he still had stored in his body in one attack, propelling the energy dome into the creature's stomach. It didn't penetrate, but it was enough to lift the creature off its feet and sent it flying high into the sky, leaving a trail of orange and green trailing behind it.

Completely out of energy, Danny's arms collapsed to his side and he felt himself transform back into his human form as he began to doze off into a deep, desperately needed sleep.

Meanwhile, high up in the sky, an orange and green fireball screeched. The creature had become completely engulfed in flames and was passing through the storm clouds, which only increased the intensity of the flames seeing as the rain was no longer a factor. The creature let out one last screeching shriek as its entire body suddenly disappeared into a bright light.

A view of the orange and green fireball from a great distance showed it shrink slightly before exploding in an ever expanding ball of swirling gases that eventually died away, leaving only a starry night behind.

* * *

Sometime later, out of pitch blackness, a slit of light appeared before expanding to reveal a clean white hospital room. Kim's aquamarine eyes glanced around as she observed snow falling outside the window to the left of her hospital bed. Above the foot of the bed, an older television sat perched on a metal stand that hung from the ceiling, the TV itself was currently playing some black and white Christmas movie that she didn't recognize. Below that was a bunch of balloons that all read 'Get Well Soon'. Kim groaned as she cracked her neck and looked to her right where the door to the room was currently closed. Several chairs sat around the hospital bed she was in.

Her attention was immediately drawn to her right side when she heard a buzzing noise. She looked up at an IV drip that had just run out and needed replacing. She followed the tube down to her arm and found the IV stuck into her arm on the inside of her elbow joint. She also noticed that her right hand was now in a cast and that she was wearing a pink gown that was tied around her back.

She looked up again as the door to the room swung open and a nurse dressed in blue smocks entered the room. An older woman, she was quite thin and had her long blonde hair curled up into a bun. She had a new IV drip bag in hand. "Ahh, well it's good to see you finally awake Kimberly," the nurse greeted her with a warm smile.

"What happened to me?" Kim asked, still a little groggy from waking up.

"You'll have to ask your friends," the nurse answered her as she went about exchanging the empty IV bag for the new one. "According to our records, the nature of what happened to you has been deemed classified by the government," she informed the college teen with a lot of emphasis on the 'classified' part.

"The government?" Kim asked with a cocked eyebrow. "Classified?" she asked as well, this time with a subtle hint of trying to remember what had happened. She suddenly gasped and reached for her chest, placing her hand directly over her heart. She could feel tightly wrapped bandages around her chest, limiting her ability to take in deep breaths.

Remembering everything that had happened, she fell silent and went teary eyed upon remembering all of her friends that had been killed. She perked up again when she heard a young girl yelling from out in the hall.

"Hey you guys, she's awake!" the girl yelled delightfully before she ran into the room, just barely dodging the nurse as she left the room. Danielle appeared to have caught up on her rest and showed no signs of injury from the fighting, not a single scratch or bruise remained. "How are you feeling?" she asked the older girl.

"Like I was hit by a bus," Kim answered with a slight grin as she cringed while pushing herself up into an upright position.

It was at this time that Jazz and Danny entered the room, albeit more calmly than Danielle had. Like her, Danny no longer showed any sign of sleep deprivation or injury. He had fully recovered as well. "Well don't worry about that bus anymore," Danny jokingly reassured her. "Because we destroyed them all."

"Well that's good I guess," Kim sighed with relief, obviously getting the analogy Danny was using. "Where are my mom and dad?" she asked curiously. "And Ron?" she quickly added.

"They're downstairs getting something to eat," Jazz answered as all three of them took seats around the bed. "They've barely left your side since you were brought here."

"How long ago was that?" Kim asked.

"A little over a week," Danielle answered, sitting backwards in her chair and leaning over the back support with her chin resting on her arms which were folded across the chair.

"A week!" Kim shouted, leaning further up in her bed. "Oww!" she yelped as she cringed and grabbed for her chest once more.

"Ten days actually," Danny clarified as he leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "Danielle and I have been out of the hospital for a few days now," he informed her. Apparently they had been in such a weakened state that they were hospitalized until they too had fully recovered. "Despite everything we've been through, we're glad we all came out of this alright."

"I still wish none of it had happened though," Kim said sadly. "Not everyone came out of this alright," she reminded him. "And the worst part is that the government is covering it up!" she half yelled so as to not cause herself anymore chest pain.

"Ehem!" another girl is heard coughing from the doorway. All four of the teens looked up to see Nicole standing in the doorway with her arms folded. "We interrupting anything?" she asked.

"Not at all," Jazz welcomed her, stepping aside so she could enter the room and approach the bed. Becky entered shortly behind her and was holding a smaller guest in her arms. "Well who's this you brought?" Jazz asked with a delighted grin.

"I thought I'd bring someone along to help cheer Kim up when she woke up," Becky said softly as she approached the hospital bed. "Kim, this is my little sister, Emily," she introduced the college girl to the tightly wrapped pink bundle in her arms.

Kim's eyes were glued to the baby as she stirred in her sleep. She had black hair like her sister, though much shorter because she was still a newborn, though a pink bow was still tied atop her head. Her eyes flickered open and they were a shade of dark green just like Becky's. With everyone looking at her, she didn't quite know who to look at.

"She's so adorable," Kim squealed with delight.

"My parents pay me to watch her," Becky said as she bounced baby Emily in her arms, much to the newborns delight. "I love taking care of her." She looked down at her sister and rasp-berried, causing the child to laugh. She reached up and grabbed Becky's hair and pulled on it. "Oww!" Becky yelped, only making the child laugh harder. "It could be awhile before she understands the concept of letting go," she said through her teeth but with a smile so as to keep her little sister happy.

"She's not the only one that needs to learn to let go," Jazz chuckled before she looked back at Kim. She sat in the nearest chair and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Bad things happen all the time and we all have to learn to let it all go," she tried to reassure her.

"But how?" Kim asked. "How am I supposed to let go of what happened?" she asked, this time more desperately.

"Don't pity the dead," Danny spoke up. "New life begins where old ones end," he said, indicating the baby in Becky's arms with a nod with his head.

Becky had managed to get her sister to let go of her hair and held her out so Kim could hold her. "New lives begin," she whispered as Jazz' words sank in. She looked down into the baby's green eyes as she looked back up at the older girl, not quite sure what to make of the new face she was looking into.

"Your friend's wouldn't want you mourning their deaths," Jazz added softly to comfort her. "It's ok to mourn them now, but life moves on," she said. "And so should we," she added.

Kim had been looking at her when she suddenly felt a pain in her scalp. "Oww," she yelped before realizing Emily was laughing in her arms. Apparently the baby had managed to grasp the older girl's hair and was tugging on it. She managed a smile and let the baby have her fun while the others laughed, ending the story in a blackout.

* * *

**After more than a year from starting this story and I've finally finished it. Now I can move on with the others stories.**


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